The typewriting business was less varied and more definite.  Those were the days before the violent competition of the half-educated had brought things down to an impossible tenpence the thousand words, and the prevailing price was as high as one-and-six.  Calculating that Ethel could do a thousand words in an hour and that she could work five or six hours in the day, it was evident that her contributions to the household expenses would be by no means despicable; thirty shillings a week perhaps.  Lewisham was naturally elated at this discovery.  He could find no advertisements of authors or others seeking typewriting, but he saw that a great number of typewriters advertised themselves in the literary papers.  It was evident Ethel also must advertise. “‘Scientific phraseology a speciality’ might be put,” meditated Lewisham.  He returned to his lodgings in a hopeful mood with quite a bundle of memoranda of possible employments.  He spent five shillings in stamps on the way.

After lunch, Lewisham—­a little short of breath-asked to see Madam Gadow.  She came up in the most affable frame of mind; nothing could be further from the normal indignation of the British landlady.  She was very voluble, gesticulatory and lucid, but unhappily bi-lingual, and at all the crucial points German.  Mr. Lewisham’s natural politeness restrained him from too close a pursuit across the boundary of the two imperial tongues.  Quite half an hour’s amicable discussion led at last to a reduction of sixpence, and all parties professed themselves satisfied with this result.

Madam Gadow was quite cool even at the end.  Mr. Lewisham was flushed in the face, red-eared, and his hair slightly disordered, but that sixpence was at any rate an admission of the justice of his claim.  “She was evidently trying it on,” he said almost apologetically to Ethel.  “It was absolutely necessary to present a firm front to her.  I doubt if we shall have any trouble again....

“Of course what she says about kitchen coals is perfectly just.”

Then the young couple went for a walk in Kensington Gardens, and—­the spring afternoon was so warm and pleasant—­sat on two attractive green chairs near the band-stand, for which Lewisham had subsequently to pay twopence.  They had what Ethel called a “serious talk.”  She was really wonderfully sensible, and discussed the situation exhaustively.  She was particularly insistent upon the importance of economy in her domestic disbursements and deplored her general ignorance very earnestly.  It was decided that Lewisham should get a good elementary text-book of domestic economy for her private study.  At home Mrs. Chaffery guided her house by the oracular items of “Inquire Within upon Everything,” but Lewisham considered that work unscientific.

Ethel was also of opinion that much might be learnt from the sixpenny ladies’ papers—­the penny ones had hardly begun in those days.  She had bought such publications during seasons of affluence, but chiefly, as she now deplored, with an eye to the trimming of hats and such like vanities.  The sooner the typewriter came the better.  It occurred to Lewisham with unpleasant suddenness that he had not allowed for the purchase of a typewriter in his estimate of their resources.  It brought their “law” down to twelve or thirteen weeks.