"I must do it," I thought. "I must, I must!"
FORTY-SIXTH CHAPTER
Hitherto I had attended to myself, but now I determined to have a maid.
I found one without much difficulty. Her name was Price. She was a very
plain woman of thirty, with piercing black eyes; and when I engaged her
she seemed anxious above all else to make me understand that she "never
saw anything."
I soon discovered that she saw everything, especially the relations
between myself and my husband, and that she put her own interpretation
(not a very flattering one) on our separated apartments. She also saw
the position of Alma, and putting her own interpretation upon that also,
she tortured me with many pin-pricks.
Under the guidance of my maid I began to haunt the shops of the
dressmakers, the milliners and the jewellers. It did not require the
memory of my father's letter to make me spend his money--I spent it like
water. Feeling ashamed of my quaker-cut costumes (Alma had a costume for
every day of the week, and wore a large gold snake on her arm), I bought
the most costly toilettes, and loaded myself with bracelets, rings and
necklaces.
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