Mrs. Radigan: Her Biography, with that of Miss Pearl Veal, and the Memoirs of J. Madison MudisonLloyd, Nelson
General
Mrs. Radigan: Her Biography, with that of Miss Pearl Veal, and the Memoirs of J. Madison Mudison
Lloyd, Nelson
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Satire; Social classes -- Fiction; Women -- Conduct of life -- Fiction
There must be lots of people who get along on less than we do; but
if they are anybody, it requires scrimping. Surely, I had to give up
enough. Gastly has my car, as he sold stocks on the bulge; Duff has my
saddle-horses, and Jangle has been turned into a general man about the
house--a combination butler, footman, and furnace-tender. Doing without
Jangle is not so hard, as I have to economize on clothes, and they are
learning to take care of themselves, but I do feel the need of more
clubs than the Cholmondeley, alone. Of course no man could live without
the Cholmondeley. When I walk by the Ticktock and the Ping-pong, all
those favorite old haunts of mine, I think of Enoch Arden or Rip Van
Winkle, whoever the fellow was that stayed away from home so long.
When I see the men in the windows looking bored, how I long to join
them!
Belonging to one club is like having a port to clear from, but no
destination. There is little pleasure in strolling down the avenue
when there is no place for you to drop in, so I have been keeping
close to home, though my reading had given me the idea that it was
the last place anyone would want to be. Yet it is quite endurable. I
suppose this is because Mrs. Mudison understands me so well. There
are discomforts. I have to take breakfast much earlier, but you don't
really mind getting up at nine o'clock when you have not been out late
the night before. There are long hours when there is nothing to do,
hours when in the old days I could ride, but which now must be filled
in with pictorial papers. I do miss that daily canter, but Gladys had
to have a pair for her brougham, so I take my exercise by walking in
the park with the children. Rather amusing they are too.
The other morning I was watching Devereux and Maltravers racing around
on the grass, when along the bridle-path came Cecil Hash on his smart
piebald pony. Pulling up in front of me he shouted, "Lord! Mudison, you
are not going to throw yourself in the reservoir?"
Really, I was feeling very cheerful, but my meditative attitude misled
him.
"I am just taking the children for a walk," said I, pointing to the
small pair.
Cecil kind of stared at the boys. His expression nettled me.
"They are Mrs. Mudison's," said I, rather sharply. "Perhaps you
remember that she was Mrs. Joshua Underbunk."
"Oh, yes," cried Hash, his face clearing, "I do remember, now. Come
to think of it, I ran across Underbunk in the Ticktock Club, just
yesterday."
Up ran that confounded little Maltravers and shouted, "Come along, dad."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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