Part Two
Chapter 19: Lying to Mr. Emerson
(continued)
Driven by nameless bewilderment, by what is in older people
termed "eccentricity," Lucy determined to make this point clear.
"I've seen the world so little--I felt so out of things in Italy.
I have seen so little of life; one ought to come up to London
more--not a cheap ticket like to-day, but to stop. I might even
share a flat for a little with some other girl."
"And mess with typewriters and latch-keys," exploded Mrs.
Honeychurch. "And agitate and scream, and be carried off kicking
by the police. And call it a Mission--when no one wants you! And
call it Duty--when it means that you can't stand your own home!
And call it Work--when thousands of men are starving with the
competition as it is! And then to prepare yourself, find two
doddering old ladies, and go abroad with them."
"I want more independence," said Lucy lamely; she knew that she
wanted something, and independence is a useful cry; we can always
say that we have not got it. She tried to remember her emotions
in Florence: those had been sincere and passionate, and had
suggested beauty rather than short skirts and latch-keys. But
independence was certainly her cue.
"Very well. Take your independence and be gone. Rush up and down
and round the world, and come back as thin as a lath with the bad
food. Despise the house that your father built and the garden
that he planted, and our dear view--and then share a flat with
another girl."
Lucy screwed up her mouth and said: "Perhaps I spoke hastily."
"Oh, goodness!" her mother flashed. "How you do remind me of
Charlotte Bartlett!"
"Charlotte!" flashed Lucy in her turn, pierced at last by a vivid
pain.
"More every moment."
"I don't know what you mean, mother; Charlotte and I are not the
very least alike."
"Well, I see the likeness. The same eternal worrying, the same
taking back of words. You and Charlotte trying to divide two
apples among three people last night might be sisters."
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