High Wages Part II

Whipple liked to show solidarity between women and she admired simple working class women of the North who worked hard and were decent and kindly. Jane buys a small shop and starts to manage her own business. She works even harder, but is saddened when Wilfred comes home from the war, having lost an arm. She has become friendly with a young lawyer, Nigel whom she met a dance before the war. Nigel is of a higher class and while she finds him attractive, he is not likely to marry a shopgirl. He marries Sylvia, the daughter of a rich businessman, Mr Greenwood who is Mr Briggs' partner.. but he really cares very little for her. By the end of the war Jane's new shop is doing well and she is happy, she has a little group of staff who rely on her very much to help with their problems. Wilfred is not very happy with his life after the war, and is envious when he can see that Jane and Nigel are becoming attracted to each other. He sells up some shares that he has, and makes enough money to go down south wiht his mother and get a new job. Jane realises that she is in love with Nigel and he admits that he never cared for Sylvia or even very much for his son Toby. She and he decide that he must get a divorce and they can go abroad to live, as a divorce would not make him very popular in a Northern provincial town. Times however have changed and Jane feels that she could cope with marrying a divorced man even if they have to go away. She gets an offer for her shop but begins to feel a bit guilty about leaving her little gang of helpers. However Mrs Briggs tells Jane that she's worried that her husband is having business problems as he is not talking to her. Shortly afterwards, Mr Briggs tells Nigel that his father in law Greenwood, his own partner, has committed massive income tax fraud and he's going to wind up in jail. Nigel is horrified, as this means that his wife's family will end up losing most of their money and there is the disgrace of going to jail. Mr Briggs says that he himself has lost money through Greenwoods machinations and he will not get another job, since even though he is not guilty of anything, he has been foolish, in not realising what his partner was up to. He finds that Mrs Briggs has some money that she got in profits from Jane's business, so they have enough to start a new life among their own kind of people. However Nigel's plans for the future are completely destroyed. He tells Jane that he cant run out on Sylvia now, she will need him and he will have to try and make sure that he does not share Greenwood's disgrace for the sake of his son. Jane is upset, but she feels that he's right, but he at least will still have his job and a wife and son whom he can turn to... even if he is unhappy. She is surprised then to find that Wilfred has come back from London, and he tells her she should go ahead with selling her business and move down south where she can set up in business again and that he will always be her friend. She decides to sell the shop and start out on a new life.