そういうわけで、ジョニーは困りきってしまい、ついに緊急手段を考えてみることにした。一日、二日、ぼんやりと心のなかで考えていたが、真剣に検討してみる勇気はほとんどなかった。それは母親にすべてを打ち明けてしまい、学校で住所を訊ねてもらうように説得するというものだった。もっともらしく洋裁の仕事を頼んでもらうのだ。でも期待はできなかった。ノラのような一家との関係をほのめかせば、母親が躊躇するだろうということを知っていたからだ。だが他に何も思いつかなかったし、そこにじっと座っていることは耐え難かった。それでも上の空で、製図も描かないでいたならば、母親が何かを推測するにちがいないと彼は考えた。だが、哀れなナンは自分の悩みを隠すことに骨をおっていた。
実際、バトスンさんは困窮した状況に我慢をしているせいで、苛立ちをつのらせていた。かつての生活より貧しいことはなく、むしろ、彼はずっと裕福になっていた。だが社交界での繁栄ぶりと成功していくにしたがって、必要な金額が増えていった。それなのに今、彼の妻は節約をはじめていた。彼女を勇気づけたものは、息子の並大抵ではない抵抗ぶりで、その抵抗には、家長としての立場にある彼も、ある程度の用心をせざるをえなかった。
So that now, in extremity, Johnny resolved on a last expedient: one that had been vaguely in his mind for a day or two, though he had yet scarce had courage to consider it seriously. This was, to tell his mother the whole thing; and to induce her, if he might, to ask the address at the Institute—perhaps on some pretext of dressmaking business. He was not hopeful, for he well knew that any hint of traffic with the family of one such as Nora’s mother would be a horror to her. But he could see nothing else, and to sit still were intolerable. Moreover he guessed that his mother must suspect something from his preoccupation, and his neglect of his drawing. Though indeed poor Nan was most at pains, just then, to conceal troubles of her own.
Mr. Butson, in fact, began to chafe under the restraints of narrow circumstances. Not that he was poorer than had been his habit—indeed he was much better off—but that his needs had expanded with his prosperity and with his successes in society. And it was just now that his wife began to attempt retrenchment. Probably she was encouraged by the outrageous revolt of her son, a revolt which had made advisable a certain degree of caution on the part of himself, the head of the household.
