Fathers and daughters -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Sisters -- Fiction
They moved quickly about, leaving the fruit and little sweets and
almonds upon the sidetable, but carrying everything else through a
sleeping-cabin into the galley. It was this other cabin that still
further deepened Jenny's sense of pain--of inferiority. That was the
feeling now most painful. She had just realised it. She was a common
girl; and Keith--ah, Keith was secure enough, she thought.
In that moment Jenny deliberately gave him up. She felt it was
impossible that he should love her. When she looked around it was with a
sorrowfulness as of farewell. These things were the things that Keith
knew and had known--that she would never again see but in the bitter
memories of this night. The night would pass, but her sadness would
remain. She would think of him here. She gave him up, quite humble in
her perception of the disparity between them. And yet her own love would
stay, and she must store her memory full of all that she would want to
know when she thought of his every moment. Jenny ceased to desire him.
She somehow--it may have been by mere exhausted cessation of
feeling--wished only to understand his life and then never to see him
again. It was a kind of numbness that seized her. Then she awoke once
again, stirred by the bright light and by the luxury of her
surroundings.
"This where you sleep?" With passionate interest in everything that
concerned him, Jenny looked eagerly about the cabin. She now indicated a
broad bunk, with a beautifully white counterpane and such an eiderdown
quilt as she might optimistically have dreamed about. The tiny cabin was
so compact, and so marvellously furnished with beautiful things that it
seemed to Jenny a kind of suite in tabloid form. She did not understand
how she had done without all these luxurious necessities for
five-and-twenty years.
"Sometimes," Keith answered, having followed her marvelling eye from
beauty to beauty. "When there's company I sleep forward with the
others." He had been hurrying by with a cruet and the bread dish when
her exclamation checked him.
"Is this lord a friend of yours, then?" Jenny asked.
"Sometimes," Keith dryly answered. "Understand?" Jenny frowned again at
his tone.
"No," she said. Keith passed on.
Jenny stood surveying the sleeping-cabin. A whole nest of drawers
attracted her eye, deep drawers that would hold innumerable things. Then
she saw a hand-basin with taps for hot and cold water. Impulsively she
tried the hot-water tap, and was both relieved and disappointed when it
gasped and offered her cold water. There were monogramed toilet
appointments beautiful to see; a leather-cased carriage clock, a shelf
full of books that looked fascinating; towels; tiny rugs; a light above
the hand-basin, and another to switch on above the bunk.... It was
wonderful! And there was a looking-glass before her in which she could
see her own reflection as clear as day--too clearly for her pleasure!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account