Our Lizzie by Anna Jacobs Page A

having another addition to the family income and had even started to build up the savings account her husband had once opened and rarely paid into. Money was much safer in the bank than sitting on your mantelpiece where people could pinch it.
    â€œThat’s what I’ve come to ask you about—does she have to go part-time? If she did get a scholarship, couldn’t she stay on at school for a year or two?”
    â€œNo, she couldn’t. You know how we’re situated.”
    Percy looked at his mother sideways, frowned, then turned back to the teacher. “Why do you ask?”
    â€œEva is such a clever child, it’s a pity to take her away from school. Is there no way…” Alice paused delicately.
    â€œWhat would be the point of her staying on?”
    â€œShe wants to train as a teacher, and I think she’d make a good one. It’d be such a shame to waste her talents, Mr. Kershaw.”
    Percy could see his mother shaking her head and sat for a moment, thinking. He’d lost his chance in life, but surely they were managing all right, even without Eva’s earnings as a part-timer? “What exactly would all this entail?”
    Meg leaned forward. “It doesn’t matter, Percy. She can’t—”
    â€œShh, Mam. Let Miss Blake tell us.”
    Alice explained about how a teacher was trained, and he nodded, asking occasional questions, proving, though he didn’t realise it, that Eva wasn’t the only clever one in the family.
    â€œWe’ll have to think about it for a few days,” he said when she had finished speaking. “It’s not something you decide in a hurry.”
    Meg breathed in deeply, feeling betrayed, but she wasn’t going to argue with him in front of a guest.
    â€œLet me show you out, Miss Blake,” said Percy, standing up.
    As he fumbled with the front door, he whispered, “Leave it to me. Give me a few days to talk Mam round.”
    She clasped his hand and nodded. “Eva is worth it. She’s one of the cleverest girls I’ve ever taught.”
    He went back to face a tirade from his mother about how careful they had to be nowadays and how they couldn’t possibly afford for Eva to stay on at school.
    Only when she’d run herself down did he say mildly, “It does bear thinking about, you know.”
    â€œHave you been listening to a word I’ve said, Percy Kershaw? It’s not just her staying on, there’s the uniform to buy—and books—and other things, too. We simply can’t afford it.”
    â€œI know it’d be hard, Mam. But teachers earn good money, you know. Our Eva would be better placed to help you in your old age if she was a teacher, don’t you think?”
    Clearly, that possibility had not occurred to Meg. She gaped at him for a moment, then said sourly, “Well, we still can’t afford it. It takes them years to become teachers nowadays. They can’t go as monitors first, as they did in the old days. And anyway, she’s a pretty lass. She’ll get married as soon as she’s finished, whatever she says now, and then all that schooling will be wasted. They can’t stay teachers if they get married, you know.”
    â€œNot everyone gets married, though teachers meet a better class of person to marry, don’t you think? It wouldn’t be a chap like me.” One with no prospects. “So she’d still be better placed to help you.” And if he knew their Eva, she’d not do anything stupid with her life. She wasn’t a madcap like Lizzie.
    His mother’s face crumpled. “Oh, Percy lad, it’s you who should be getting some more schooling, not a lass.”
    â€œLeave it, Mam. That’s over and done with.”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œLeave it, I said!”
    But he had the satisfaction over the next few days of seeing his mother studying Eva, looking thoughtful. And she stopped complaining when