Charms -- Fiction; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; Love stories; World War, 1914-1918 -- Fiction
This nephew of a French hotel manageress ... of course he wasn't exactly
the sort of admirer who belonged in Granges with grounds full of
rhododendrons, but he was a _man_, triumphed Olwen. There'd be others,
people that Miss Agatha Walsh could think seriously about; but he was
the _beginning_! He'd shown the success of her experiment. The Charm
_could_ work. That letter was _not_ all nonsense! It was all true! And
since the Charm had worked for Miss Walsh, it would work for--well,
others! Joy, oh joy!
Bursting with joy, in fact, the girl darted out of the _salon_,
scampering upstairs in all haste to overtake Miss Walsh, and to hear
more of this.
She hoped to catch her up at her bedroom door, but already Miss Walsh
had gone in.
Olwen knocked; was asked, "Who's there?"
"Only me--Olwen!"
"Come in," was the muffled answer. It came from behind a handful of Miss
Walsh's hair, quite abundant and almost pretty, now that she had removed
the flattening net and taken it all down. The first glance showed Olwen
that it was not just "down" for the night. There was a side glass in
Miss Walsh's hand; a thick loop of her locks was coiled up at the back,
ready for the side "bits" to be drawn across in a simpler fashion than
the upholstery of puffs and curls. Yes! She was seeing how she looked
with her hair done a different way! Ah, sign of the times, that could
spell only one thing: M--A--N!
"I--I only came in to say good night to you," Olwen began (really
longing to ply with questions; how--how soon did IT work--what
happened----).
Miss Walsh turned a face as transfigured as Olwen's own above her
quilted dressing jacket.
She looked ten years younger. She held her head at almost the angle of
those who have _not_ been born with the saddle. All fluttered and
flushed she was, but delighted; a once bleak landscape that a sun-ray
lightens. For it is your lifelong teetotaller who, rescued from Death,
perks up at the first sip of restorative. It was the elder Miss Walsh's
cloistered companion who was responding to that tonic: masculine
attention. She turned a new smile upon Olwen.
"Oh, it's you," she exclaimed, with new notes in her voice. Then she
broke into the breathless talk which was to her as new a function as
shopping for herself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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