Simon gave her up as far as Ariadne was concerned. He stuck to Ariadne,
but did not neglect other girls or any one else for her sake, and so
compromise her. He has got a lot of tact. Ariadne hasn't any, but she is
gentle and easily led, and Simon is the kind of boy who is going to grow
masterful, and likes a girl who gives him the chance of standing up for
her and managing for her. Perhaps he is a little bit sorry for her. Not
because she is so dreadfully in love with him; he isn't conceited enough
to see that, or Ariadne would have shown him long ago. He is sorry for
her because she gives herself away so in so many ways, looking pretty
all the time. That is important, for it is no good looking pathetic,
unless you look pretty as well. He chaffs her about her fluffy hats that
go all limp in the salt sea-spray, and her pretty thin shoes that let
the water in, and her hair that never will stay where she wants it. She
has got into the way of continually arranging herself, patting a bow
here, pulling her sleeves down over her wrist, and arranging her hair.
"Always at work!" he says suddenly, and Ariadne's guilty hands go down
like clockwork. It isn't rude, the way he says it. He looks at her
kindly, not cheekily. It is that kind sort of fatherly look that I like,
and that makes me think he is fond of Ariadne.
She is different from Lady Scilly, whom he is beginning slightly to
detest. Sometimes he looks quite glum when she is ordering him about,
but he obeys. What do married women do to men to make them their slaves
as they do, and yet one can see by their eyes that they don't want to?
And why are the women themselves the last to see that the servant wants
to give notice and would willingly forfeit a month's wages to be allowed
to leave at once? Lady Scilly is just like a mistress who avoids going
down into her own kitchen to order dinner, at a time when relations are
strained, lest the cook takes the chance of giving her warning. Lady
Scilly is the least bit afraid of Simon's cooling off, and just now
prefers to give him his orders from a distance.
She calls Lord Scilly "Silly-Billy," and "my harmless, necessary
husband." He is not dangerous, and he certainly is useful, for she
really could not go about alone wearing the hats she does. She has one
made of a whole parrot, and a coat made of leopard skins. I like Lord
Scilly. He is rather fat, and knows it. He has a hoarse sort of voice,
and yet I don't think he drinks much. Perhaps it is the open-air life
that he leads among horses and dogs and grooms; at Summer Meetings and
Doncaster, and so on. He is well known as a fearless rider, and risks
his neck with the greatest pleasure. If I were Lady Scilly, I should
much prefer him to George, though not to Simon. His chest is broader
than George's, and he is taller than Simon, but then she isn't married
to either of those. Marriage is like the rennet you put into the
junket--it turns it!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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