The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spoils of Poynton, by Henry James

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Title: The Spoils of Poynton

Author: Henry James

Release Date: August 2, 2010 [EBook #33325]

Language: English

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The Spoils of Poynton

By Henry James

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1897

Copyright, 1896,
By HENRY JAMES.

_All rights reserved._

_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A._
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company.

THE SPOILS OF POYNTON

I

Mrs. Gereth had said she would go with the rest to church, but suddenly
it seemed to her that she should not be able to wait even till
church-time for relief: breakfast, at Waterbath, was a punctual meal,
and she had still nearly an hour on her hands. Knowing the church to be
near, she prepared in her room for the little rural walk, and on her way
down again, passing through corridors and observing imbecilities of
decoration, the aesthetic misery of the big commodious house, she felt a
return of the tide of last night's irritation, a renewal of everything
she could secretly suffer from ugliness and stupidity. Why did she
consent to such contacts, why did she so rashly expose herself? She had
had, heaven knew, her reasons, but the whole experience was to be
sharper than she had feared. To get away from it and out into the air,
into the presence of sky and trees, flowers and birds, was a necessity
of every nerve. The flowers at Waterbath would probably go wrong in
color and the nightingales sing out of tune; but she remembered to have
heard the place described as possessing those advantages that are
usually spoken of as natural. There were advantages enough it clearly
didn't possess. It was hard for her to believe that a woman could look
presentable who had been kept a