Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Married women -- Fiction
When she walked down Grafton Street she fancied that people stared at
her. It never struck her as possible that they were staring at her
vivid and unusual beauty. It struck her as funny that her father did
not seem to be aware of the discrepancy in her dress. He wasn't in the
least. He had taken his daughter for granted. In his unconscious
arrogance he imagined that the distinction of being a Hewish of
Roscarna was sufficient in itself to make her independant of externals,
and, as he proposed no alterations she trusted his judgment and they
went to the Horse Show together in their ill-cut tweeds.
Gabrielle was entranced by the jumping. Whenever a horse topped the
fences she straightened her back automatically as though she had been
riding herself. With such splendid animals as those she felt that she
could have made a better job of it. For the moment she forgot all
about her questionable clothes; but when, later in the day, she was
taken by her father to be presented to the Halbertons, the family of
the Devonshire peer with whom the Hewishes were connected, she became
immediately and horribly conscious of Lady Halberton's magnificence and
the elegance of her daughters. It shocked and thrilled her to see that
the elder Halberton girl powdered her nose. She wondered what it must
feel like to have one's hands encased in skin-tight gloves, and how
these English people managed to speak with such an elegant tiredness.
It seemed to her inevitable that Lady Halberton must be ashamed of her
cousins, and she was relieved, but a little frightened, to hear this
great lady invite her father and her to dinner at the Shelbourne on the
following night. After all, she reflected, there must be something in
the name of Hewish. She wondered how on earth she could make her
father understand that she couldn't very well go to dinner in the dress
that she was wearing, the only one that she possessed.
III
It is extraordinary to think how forty-eight hours had turned this
amazing, sexless creature into a woman. The problem of a dinner-dress
was solved for her almost at once by Jocelyn himself. As soon as they
were safely back at Maple's he asked her if she really wanted to dine
with the Halbertons at the Shelbourne, and when she said, "Of course!"
he produced a five pound note from the pigskin case that he carried in
his coat-tail, and turned her loose in Grafton Street. An hour later
she returned, breathless with excitement, carrying the dress that she
had bought, a frock of white muslin, high at the neck and
hand-embroidered with a pattern of shamrock. Life was becoming a
matter of great excitement.
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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account