The Reflections of Ambrosine eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 254 pages of information about The Reflections of Ambrosine.

The Reflections of Ambrosine eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 254 pages of information about The Reflections of Ambrosine.

For me it was an hour of deep humiliation.  It required all my self-control to go on talking to Babykins as if nothing had happened.

The Duke came over and joined us.  He drew a low chair and sat down so that I could not see the hilarious sofa-party.

I have not the least idea what he said or what any of us said.  The guffaws of laughter in Augustus’s thick voice was all I was conscious of.

Sir Antony Thornhirst, who had stopped to speak to Lady Tilchester by the billiard-room door, now came over to us.  He stood by me for a moment, then crossed to Lady Grenellen.

“They are wanting you to play bridge in the blue drawing-room,” he said.

She rose quite reluctantly, still overcome with mirth.  Augustus tried to get up, too, but stumbled back into the sofa.

Then, with infinite tact, my kinsman attracted his attention, said some thrilling thing about the war, and, as Lady Grenellen moved off and Augustus made another ineffectual attempt to rise and follow her, Sir Antony sat down in her vacant place and for half an hour conversed with my husband.  Oh, I force myself to write the words “my husband.”  It is to keep the hideous fact in remembrance, otherwise I might let myself express aloud the loathing and contempt I feel for him.

Sir Antony had never before taken the least notice of him beyond the most casual politeness, and now, from the scraps of conversation that my preternaturally sharpened ears could catch, he seemed to be trying his best to interest and retain Augustus beside him.  Gradually the whole company dispersed into the different drawing-rooms as usual, and I followed the rest to look at the bridge.

As I was passing the sofa, where the two men were sitting, Augustus seized hold of my dress.

“Don’t look so damned haughty, little woman,” he hiccoughed.  “Er—­I’m all right—­give me a kiss—­”

“As I was going to tell you,” interrupted Sir Antony, “I heard for a fact that the rest of the Tilchester Yeomanry that have escaped so long are going to volunteer to go out, after all.”

Augustus dropped my dress.  His face got paler.  This information seemed to sober him for an instant, and in that blessed interval I got away and into the blue drawing-room.  Lady Tilchester was not playing bridge, and she sat down in the window-seat beside me.  It was a lovely night, and the windows were wide open.

She is the most delightful companion.  I am beginning to know her a little and to realize how much there is to know.

To-night she was more than usually fascinating.  It seemed as if she wished to make me forget everything but the pleasure in our conversation.  She has a vast knowledge of books, and has even read all the French classics that grandmamma loved.  We talked of many things, and, among them, gardens.  She told me that I must make a new garden at Ledstone, and I would find it an immense interest; and she spoke so kindly of Mrs. Gurrage, and said how charitable she was and good-hearted, and then delicately, and as if it had no bearing upon the Gurrage case, hinted that in these days money was the only thing needed to make an agreeable society for one’s self, and that in the future I must have plenty of amusement.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Reflections of Ambrosine from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.