But against fastidiousness even the blind urge
of the race seldom has availed her; she can only go on sullenly feeding the
fires, heaping on the fuel, hoping grimly for the astrological moment.
IV
Alexina shrugged her shoulders impatiently and went into the house. She
would go down to the bank and clip her coupons. She cultivated assiduously
the practical side of life, making the most of it, delighted when repairs
were needed on her flats, regretting that the greater part of her income
came from ground rents, collected, as ever, by Tom Abbott, and bonds, from
which she still experienced a childish pleasure in cutting the coupons. Her
flats, which were in a humbler part of the western division of the city,
she had never visited, but she received a call every month from the agent,
who brought her the rents and complaints.
She had made a heroic effort to turn herself into a business woman but
the material had been too slender; and she sometimes wished for a large
independent fortune that would tax her powers to the utmost. But she never
even had any surplus to invest. Her wardrobe was no inconsiderable item;
living prices rose steadily; there were repairs both on her own house and
the flats to be anticipated every year, to say nothing of the fiendish sum
that must be set aside for taxes. But she managed to save the necessary
amount; and if they lived somewhat extravagantly, at least she had never
disturbed her capital.
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