I think this was Ariadne's first sorrow, and lasted quite a week. She
would only go out after dark, to hide her shame from every eye. Mother
encouraged her, and said she knew how she must feel. To Aunt Gerty she
said several times, "Never again!" which is the most awful thing to say
to any one. It meant that Aunt Gerty wasn't to be trusted with girls,
and especially George's girls. Mother gave it her well.
"You should have prevented Ariadne from letting herself down like that!
I shall never hear the end of it from George."
"George indeed! Why wasn't George looking after his own precious kids
then? I don't think he's got any need to talk! My Lord Scilly will be
having a word with him some of these days, or I shall be very much
surprised!"
"You hold your wicked, lying tongue!" was all Mother said to her.
Mother, somehow, hasn't the heart to be hard on Aunt Gerty.
I could have told Aunt Gerty that Lord Scilly was keeping quite calm. He
can manage Lady Scilly well enough. I have heard him say so. "Paquerette
knows the side her bread is buttered as well as any woman living! She is
a right good sort, is Paquerette, only she likes to kick her heels a
bit! She and I understand each other!"
He talks like this, as if they were like Darby and Joan, but Lady Scilly
doesn't agree with him, or says she doesn't. "Scilly and I," she once
said to Ariadne, "are an astigmatic couple." She meant, she explained,
that they are like two eyes whose sight is different. I fancy his is the
long-sighted eye.
Well, this little row was soon over as far as Mother and Aunt Gerty were
concerned. George's scolding was short and sweet, Aunt Gerty said, and
she couldn't possibly dislike him more than she did already. But Ariadne
could not get over her disgrace for ages. She still wouldn't stir out of
the house, but I went out regularly and policed Lady Scilly and Simon.
Of course this contretemps to Ariadne has had the effect of throwing
them into each other's arms worse than ever. They became inseparable. If
Lady Scilly had only known it, Simon's being near her made her look
quite old and anxious, whereas she made him look young and bored.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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