She had had no schooling and when she grew up it seemed a poor way to spend the time reading,when you might be talking.Somebody always told you what was in the newspapers,and if you wanted to know anything else,why,where was your tongue?She examined the paper again,but it conveyed no meaning to her anxious eyes.
And then in a flash she saw Miss Perkins in a new light,The woman's anxiety about her was a blind to save her money from dribbling out in petty loans.Mrs Yabsley,knowing that banks were only traps,still hid her money so carefully that no one could lay hands on it.So that was the root of her care for Mrs Yabsley's appearance.She held up the note,and regarded it with a grimly humorous smile.She knew the truth now,and felt no desire to read what was written there--some lie,she supposed--and dropped it on the floor.
Suddenly she felt old and lonely,and wrapping a shawl round her shoulders,went out to her seat on the veranda.It was near eleven,and the street was humming with life.The sober and thrifty were trudging home with their loads of provisions;gossips were gathered at intervals;sudden jests were bandied,conversations were shouted across the width of the street,for it was Saturday night,and innumerable pints of beer had put Cardigan Street in a good humour.The doors were opened,and the eye travelled straight into the front rooms lit with a kerosene lamp or a candle.Under the veranda at the corner the Push was gathered,the successors of Chook and Jonah,young and vicious,for the larrikin never grows old.
She looked on the familiar scenes that had been a part of her life since she could remember.The street was changed,she thought,for a new generation had arrived,scorning the old traditions.The terrace opposite,sinking in decay,had become a den of thieves,the scum of a city rookery.
She felt a stranger in her own street,and saw that her money had spoilt her relations with her neighbours.Once she could read them like a book,but these people came to her with lies and many inventions for the sake of a few miserable shillings.She wondered what the world was coming to.