Her first task was to find rooms; her
next to find a livelihood. Even the first involved no small
relapse from the purity of her principles. After long hours of
vain hunting, she found at last she could only get lodgings for
herself and Alan's child by telling a virtual lie, against which
her soul revolted. She was forced to describe herself as Mrs.
Barton; she must allow her landlady to suppose she was really a
widow. Woe unto you, scribes and hypocrites! in all Christian
London MISS Barton and her baby could never have found a
"respectable" room in which to lay their heads. So she yielded to
the inevitable, and took two tiny attics in a small street off the
Edgware Road at a moderate rental. To live alone in a cottage as
of yore would have been impossible now she had a baby of her own to
tend, besides earning her livelihood; she fell back regretfully on
the lesser evil of lodgings.
To earn her livelihood was a hard task, though Herminia's
indomitable energy rode down all obstacles. Teaching, of course,
was now quite out of the question; no English parent could intrust
the education of his daughters to the hands of a woman who has
dared and suffered much, for conscience' sake, in the cause of
freedom for herself and her sisters.
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