Humorous stories; London (England) -- Fiction; Lucia (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Women -- England -- Fiction
“Thirty-seven, forty-seven, fifty-two, and carry five,” she muttered, as
Georgie stood in front of the fire, so that the entire new suit should
be seen at once. “Wait a moment, Georgie--and seventeen and five’s
twenty-three--no, twenty-two, and that’s put me out: I must begin again.
That can’t be right. Help yourself, if de Vere has brought in tea, and
if not ring---- Oh, I left out the four, and altogether it’s two
thousand five hundred pounds.”
Georgie had thought at first that Daisy was merely doing some belated
household accounts, but the moment she said “two thousand five hundred
pounds” he guessed, and did not even go through the formality of asking
what was two thousand five hundred pounds.
“I made it two thousand six hundred,” he said. “But we’re pretty well
agreed.”
Naturally Daisy understood that he understood.
“Perhaps you reckoned the pearls as capital,” she said, “and added the
interest.”
“No I didn’t,” he said. “How could I tell how much they were worth? I
didn’t reckon them in at all.”
“Well, it’s a lot of money,” said Daisy. “Let’s have tea. What will she
do with it?”
She seemed quite blind to the Oxford trousers, and Georgie wondered
whether that was from mere feebleness of vision. Daisy was
short-sighted, though she steadily refused to recognize that, and would
never wear spectacles. In fact, Lucia had made an unkind little epigram
about it at a time when there was a slight coolness between the two, and
had said “Dear Daisy is too short-sighted to see how short-sighted she
is.” Of course it was unkind, but very brilliant, and Georgie had read
through “The Importance of Being Earnest” which Lucia had gone up to
town to see, in the hopes of discovering it.... Or was Daisy’s
unconsciousness of his trousers merely due to her preoccupation with
Lucia’s probable income?... Or were the trousers, after all, not so
daring as he had thought them?
He sat down with one leg thrown carelessly over the arm of his chair, so
that Daisy could hardly fail to see it. Then he took a piece of
tea-cake.
“Yes, do tell me what you think she will do with it?” he asked. “I’ve
been puzzling over it too.”
“I can’t imagine,” said Daisy. “She’s got everything she wants now.
Perhaps they’ll just hoard it, in order that when Pepino dies we may all
see how much richer he was than we ever imagined. That’s too posthumous
for me. Give me what I want now, and a pauper’s funeral afterward.”
“Me too,” said Georgie, waving his leg. “But I don’t think Lucia will do
that. It did occur to me----”
“The house in London, you mean,” said Daisy, swiftly interrupting. “Of
course if they kept both houses open, with a staff in each, so that they
could run up and down as they chose, that would make a big hole in it.
Lucia has always said that she couldn’t live in London, but she may
manage it if she’s got a house there.”
“I’m dining with her to-night,” said Georgie. “Perhaps she’ll say
something.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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