This FreedomHutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
General
This Freedom
Hutchinson, A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth)
Marriage -- Fiction; Women -- Social and moral questions -- Fiction
Miss Keggs’s room was right at the top of the house where were also the
servants’ room and the room shared by Miss Downer and Miss Frost. It was
a long, narrow room with sloping ceiling and the window high up in the
ceiling. In the winter it was warmed with a small oil stove which smelt
terribly when you first went in but to the smell of which you almost at
once got accustomed. It was curious to Rosalie that even in summer when
there was no oil stove there was nearly always a very strong smell
in Miss Keggs’s room. Miss Keggs used eau de Cologne for bathing her
forehead and temples on account of the very bad headaches from which
she said she suffered and the smell was like eau de Cologne but with an
unpleasantly harsh strong tang in it, like bad eau de Cologne, Rosalie
used to think. However, you almost at once got accustomed to that also.
These headaches of Miss Keggs were a symptom of the very bad health from
which she suffered, and on the occasions of Rosalie’s visits to her
room Miss Keggs was very communicative about her ill health. It was the
reason, she told Rosalie, why, alone of all the mistresses, she had a
room to herself instead of sharing one. The Sultana had granted her that
privilege, provided she would use this remote and rather poky attic,
because it was so essential she should be quiet and undisturbed.
“Don’t you have any medicine, Miss Keggs?” said the small Rosalie,
in one part genuinely sympathetic and in the other eager to discuss
anything that would prolong her stay by the warm oil stove.
“Nothing does me any good,” said Miss Keggs wearily. After a minute
she added, “But I really am feeling very bad to-night. Mr. Ponders very
kindly gives me some medicine that relieves my bad attacks. I wonder,
Rosalie, if you could find your way down to Mr. Ponders and give him
this medicine bottle and ask him if he could very kindly oblige me with
a little of my medicine?”
“Oh, I’m sure I could, Miss Keggs,” cried Rosalie, delighted at the
opportunity of doing a service.
Miss Keggs became extraordinarily animated with the feverish animation
of one who, having made up her mind after hesitation, furiously tramples
hesitation under foot.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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