good enough was seated on the corner of a table till
some younger and less gorgeous lady could be made
to give way. And the Marchioness was declaring
she was as wet through as though she had been dragged
in a river. Mrs Boncassen was so absolutely quelled
as to have retired into the kitchen attached to the
summer-house. Mr Boncassen, with all his country’s
pluck and pride, was proving to a knot of gentlemen
round him on the verandah, that such treachery in
the weather was a thing unknown in his happier country.
Miss Boncassen had to do her best to console the splashed
ladies. ’Oh Mrs Jones, is it not a pity!
What can I do for you?’
’We must bear it, my dear. It often does
rain, but why on this special day should it come down
in buckets?’
‘I never was so wet in all my life,’ said
Dolly Longstaff, poking in his head.
‘There’s somebody smoking,’ said
the Countess angrily. There was a crowd of men
smoking out on the verandah. ’I never knew
anything so nasty,’ the Countess continued,
leaving it in doubt whether she spoke of the rain,
or the smoke, or the party generally.
Damp gauzes, splashed stockings, trampled muslins,
and features which have perhaps known something of
rouge and certainly encountered something of rain
may be made, but can only, by supreme high breeding,
be made compatible with good-humour. To be moist,
muddy, rumpled and smeared, when by the very nature
of your position it is your duty to be clear-starched
up to the pellucidity of crystal, to be spotless as
the lily, to be crisp as the ivy-leaf, and as clear
in complexion as a rose,—is it not, O gentle
readers, felt to be a disgrace? It came to pass,
therefore, that many were now very cross. Carriages
were ordered under the idea that some improvement
might be made at the inn which was nearly a mile distant.
Very few, however, had their own carriages, and there
was jockeying for the vehicles. In the midst of
all this Silverbridge remained near to Miss Boncassen
as circumstances would admit. ‘You are
not waiting for me,’ she said.
‘Yes I am. We might as well go up to town
together.’
’Leave me with father and mother. Like
the captain of a ship, I must be the last to leave
the wreck.’
’But I’ll be the gallant sailor of the
day, who always at the risk of his life sticks to
the skipper to the last moment.’
’Not at all;—just because there will
be no gallantry. But come and see us tomorrow
and find out whether we have got through it alive.’
The Langham Hotel
‘What an abominable climate,’ Mrs Boncassen
had said when they were quite alone at Maidenhead.
’My dear, you didn’t think you were going
to bring New York along with you when you came here,’
replied her husband.
‘I wish I was going back tomorrow.’
’That’s a foolish thing to say. People
here are very kind, and you are seeing a great deal
more of the world than you would ever see at home.
I am having a very good time. What do you say,
Bell?’
