Madame Claire

Name: Madame Claire
Author: Ertz, Susan

Ertz, Susan

England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Families -- Fiction; Letters -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Older women -- Fiction

MADAME CLAIRE

by

SUSAN ERTZ


[Illustration: D. Appleton Logo]






D. Appleton And Company.
New York
MCMXXIII

Copyright, 1923, by
D. Appleton and Company

Printed in the United States of America




                              Contents


                           Madame Claire

              Chapter I.                           1
              Chapter II.                         14
              Chapter III.                        26
              Chapter IV.                         41
              Chapter V.                          50
              Chapter VI.                         65
              Chapter VII.                        76
              Chapter VIII.                       85
              Chapter IX.                         97
              Chapter X.                         116
              Chapter XI.                        120
              Chapter XII.                       133
              Chapter XIII.                      144
              Chapter XIV.                       150
              Chapter XV.                        170
              Chapter XVI.                       176
              Chapter XVII.                      191
              Chapter XVIII.                     209
              Chapter XIX.                       227
              Chapter XX.                        243
              Chapter XXI.                       260
              Chapter XXII.                      266
              Chapter XXIII.                     282
              Chapter XXIV.                      303
              Chapter XXV.                       319
              Chapter XXVI.                      332
              Novels of Supreme Literary Art.
              Transcriber's Note.




Madame Claire




CHAPTER I


If you wish to be relieved from the worries of housekeeping; if you wish
to cultivate the society of retired army folk, or that of blameless
spinsterhood, ask for a room (inclusive terms) at the Kensington Park
Hotel, Kensington. It is unprogressive, it is Early Victorian--though of
late that term has lost some of its reproach--but it is eminently safe
and respectable.

Although neither of these qualities had ever particularly attracted Lady
Gregory--or Madame Claire, as her grandchildren called her--she found
herself at the age of seventy a candidate for admission. It was out of
the question for her to keep up the big house in Prince's Gardens after
her only son Eric married. Live with him she would not, valuing his love
for her and his own happiness too much to risk a ménage-à-trois with a
daughter-in-law--even a daughter-in-law of whom at that time she
approved. For Madame Claire not only faced facts squarely, but she had a
way of seeing under and around them as well, which greatly endeared her
to the more discriminating of her children and grandchildren.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Madame Claire

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