FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70  
71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   >>   >|  
e room, remarking on everything. "Well, there! What do you say to _that_ for a picture," addressing his wife. "Tell Ma to come here, Eleanor, I want 'er to see this 'orse, and the lady on the moon in the next frame. I wish you could paint pictures, my girl; but maybe Mr. Roche will 'ave you taught." Giddy flushes scarlet. Lady MacDonald fans herself violently with the screen. Mrs. Grebby takes the tiny cup Eleanor hands her, and turns it round to examine it. Then her eyes fall on the slices of thin bread and butter, the dainty biscuits, and minute squares of buttered toast. "Don't you get 'ungry, dearie?" she asks. "I thought you'd be sure to have a knife-and-fork tea, living in this style." Her daughter laughs heartily. A wicked desire to shock Lady MacDonald, as Giddy has so often excited her to do on previous occasions, seizes Eleanor. "Oh, _no_, Ma! We have big dinners at eight o'clock. Five courses and serviettes. You ask Lady MacDonald." "I don't call this a cup," declares Mr. Grebby, grinning broadly as Eleanor hands him his tea. "It's more like an acorn!" He takes half a dozen slices of bread and butter and munches them hungrily. "I'm a bit peckish, my girl," he says. "But then we've had a long day, and fastin' don't agree with me. We went to the Tower, Madame Tussaud's, and the Exhibition of Tortures in Leicester Square. We liked that best of all." "But what did you do with Rover?" asks Eleanor, exciting the dog to jump on the sofa and patting his wet nose. "We left him at Cousin Harriett's. We can stay the night here with you, and after that we are going to put up a bit at her lodging-house in Bloomsbury. Ma was set on bringing old Rover to see you, as we think he won't last long now." "The dear fellow!" murmurs Eleanor, cutting the pink cake. "Some more tea, Lady MacDonald?" "_No_, thank you," and the severity of the tone startles Eleanor. She fears she has committed some deadly offence in offering this proud beauty a second cup. Never was there a more grotesque tea-party on the terrace than in Eleanor's boudoir that afternoon. Giddy with deepest shame, resentment and horror, raging in her heart. Lady MacDonald haughty and disdainful, eyeing the homely couple as she would the beasts at the Zoo. Mrs. Grebby, speechless in admiring silence, fingering the frills of the sofa cushions, and taking in the pattern of the wall-paper, her breast swelling with pride and g
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70  
71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Eleanor

 

MacDonald

 

Grebby

 

slices

 

butter

 

Cousin

 

fingering

 

exciting

 
frills
 

patting


silence

 

admiring

 

lodging

 
cushions
 

Harriett

 
fastin
 
breast
 
swelling
 

Madame

 
Tussaud

pattern

 

Bloomsbury

 

Exhibition

 

Tortures

 

Leicester

 

Square

 

taking

 

bringing

 

offering

 
offence

haughty
 
deadly
 
eyeing
 

disdainful

 

committed

 

raging

 
beauty
 
deepest
 
terrace
 

afternoon


grotesque
 

horror

 

resentment

 

homely

 

fellow

 

boudoir

 

murmurs

 

beasts

 

severity

 

startles