She put the paper and the cheque down, and turned away.
"Yes. Yes, very! We shall have to do something, John. We've very little left!"
"Of course, there's the London season to come yet," he said to comfort her.
"Not for a very long time," she answered, "and it may not be any better than this!" She hesitated for a moment, then she hurriedly said, "John, why shouldn't I go on with my work!"
"Why shouldn't I get a job again? We could manage, I think, and the money I'd earn would be useful. You could finish your new book!..."
His pride was hurt. "Oh, no," he said at once. "No, no, I can't agree to that. What sort of a husband would I look like if people heard that I couldn't maintain my wife. Oh, Eleanor, I couldn't think of such a thing!...
"I don't see why not. You're not going to make money easily, so far as I can see, and either you or I must get work of some sort. I know you want to finish your book, so why shouldn't I earn something to help us to keep going?"
"No," he said, "that's my job. I daresay Hinde would give me work if I asked for it!"
"But you've always been against doing journalism."
"I know. I'm still against it, but one can't always resist things. He might let me do literary work for him. I'll go in and see him to-morrow."
He told her of his encounter with Hinde that day and of Hinde's proposal to boom _The Enchanted Lover_. "I don't like the idea much, but perhaps it'll be useful!" He picked up the cheque from the Cottenham Repertory Theatre. "I'm actually out of pocket over this affair," he said. "What with the cost of typing the play and my expenses in Cottenham...."
"I wish we could go back to Ballyards," Eleanor said.
"Go back to Ballyards!" he exclaimed, staring at her in astonishment.
"Go back and admit I've failed in London! Crawl home with my tail between my legs!..."
"I have my pride," he retorted. "You can call that being melodramatic, if you like, but I call it decent pride. I won't admit to anybody that I've failed. I haven't failed!..."
"I won't fail. You wait. Just you wait. I'll succeed all right. If I have failed so far, I can try again, can't I? Can't I?"
"I'm not going to take a knock-down blow as a knockout. I know I can write. I feel the stuff inside me. The book I'm doing now, isn't that good?"