England -- Fiction; Husband and wife -- Fiction; Indiana -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Mate selection -- Fiction
"Watson, show Lady Canning her apartment. They have been newly
furnished for you, my dear child, and I have not only followed
Thurston’s written injunctions, but, in addition, carried out some of my
own." Thurston raised her hand, which he was holding, to his lips. She
smiled on him fondly. "I hope you will like your rooms, Indiana."
"I am sure I shall, Lady Canning," said Indiana, with a bright smile and
a mental resolve to like them very much. She had recovered from the
tearful stage and felt now quite equal to her surroundings.
"And you will find your maid a very competent person—she brought the
highest references," added Lady Canning.
Thurston led her to the door, pressing a kiss on her forehead.
"Is everyone old here?" thought Indiana, as Watson, a very elderly woman
with snow-white hair, led the way, mounting the stairs with difficulty.
"I don’t like old people to wait on me. I shall feel more like waiting
on them." However, she found the maid Lady Canning had selected, a very
young, cheerful person. The gloomy impression she had received below
was counteracted by her own suite of rooms, which were cheerfully and
lightly furnished, in the daintiest of coloring. The boudoir was hung in
shades varying from rose to palest pink; the ceiling hollowed and tinted
to imitate a sea-shell; fairy-like crystal fixtures gleamed from the
walls. There were a few treasures of art here and there amidst the
draperies. A Greuze, hung in the best light, attracted Indiana
immediately. Pink roses filled every available spot, in fragile vases
of Venetian glass of the dolphin design. Indiana felt an impulse of
gratitude toward Lady Canning for these preparations, in which loving
care and the most exquisite taste were apparent. Minute attention had
been paid to detail—no possible contrivance for her comfort overlooked.
The maid told her that Lady Canning, herself, had arranged the flowers
in the boudoir and upon the dressing-table.
"I must have acted like a fool at first," thought Indiana, fastening a
pink rose, from one of the vases, in the breast of her travelling-dress,
before going down. "When she said something about being a mother to
me—that set me off. Poor ma! I hope she isn’t fretting. I can’t
forget dad yet, as he looked when he wished me good-bye." Stillwater
had not allowed his wife to go down to the steamer—he thought she had
suffered enough. Mrs. Bunker remained with her daughter. When Indiana
waved her handkerchief as the steamer left the dock, he thought of the
day when she was laid in his arms.
"She is very young, Thurston," remarked Lady Canning, after Indiana had
left the library, "a mere child."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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