The woman wore brown--the frump’s unfailing refuge: it was a hot,
reddish sort of brown; her hat, anxious to be in the fashion, was
painfully skewered to her head by many pins. There were fresh touches
of pink about her at ridiculously unwanted spots. She looked pleased,
shy; like a child dressed for a party.
Pamela followed them up between the line of tables, between the greedy
line of eaters, some gluttonously bending over the plates, some waiting
with an air of impatience, some replete and leaning back, quizzing and
smoking. In the long mirrors she could see the reflection of all
three--such a dramatic three: Edred, with his sheepish, sleepy air; the
strange woman, all pink and brown and narrow airs of virtue as she
looked at--and apparently suspected--every other woman a little smarter
than herself. Last of the three Pamela saw her own tall figure,
stylishly attired, the abundant dull hair bunching out beneath her
toque with the big ostrich plumes. The set and selection of her gown
was in such good, if rather striking, taste, that the over-fed and
quickly-feeding men looked after her, their faces lighting up.
The intangible feeling of shame, of smirching, which was becoming
common to her, caught at her then. She fancied she read insult in the
admiration of these many strange men.
She looked at herself again and was bound to admit that there was not
so very much difference between her costume, her carriage, and the
carriage and costume of others present whose vocation was unmistakable.
The ultra-fashionable woman sails perilously near the wind in
appearance. She felt quite angry with her expensive garments. She
followed still, through the glass, the movements of the woman in pink
and brown. She seemed to shout, in every seam of her dowdy frock, in
every gleaming button of her badly-cut gloves, “respectable married
virtue.” She!--_she!_
The world was whirling round the wrong way.
She followed her quarry, every sense alert so that Edred might not
discover her. When the two settled at a table she deftly slipped aside
and took the one immediately behind them. So that they were sitting
back to back, she and that shameful woman with the perplexing insolent
air of calm virtue. The back of her beautifully-cut and braided
heliotrope coat was within a few inches of the contemptible little
brown bodice with the crisp pink bow at the neck and the pink-lined
ends, like lopping rabbit-ears, at the waist.
The waiter came up. Beneath her breath and mechanically she ordered a
steak, her ears strained all the time to hear what they would order.
Edred said:
“Calves’-head? You have never tasted it--as they serve it here.”
“It’s rather rich,” came a common voice dubiously.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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