An Accomplished Woman Read Online Free PDF

need say no more. For myself I
recommend country washing and no bleaching — of course, with poor Henry these
things are more a matter of necessity than choice.’
    ‘Sir Henry’s health does
not improve?’
    ‘It does not degenerate, but it does not improve — it’s delightfully like you, by the by, to
enquire, you dear thing — and the doctor is inclined to suggest that Henry does
not sufficiently rouse himself. I have answers for the doctor in that regard, but never mind.’ Lady Eastmond at last seated herself. ‘My dear
Lydia, I needed to see you. First, to refresh my old eyes with the sight. They
are refreshed. Second, to ask how you do. I know we have run into one another
while you have been in town, but still not often — you have too much
sense to move in the sort of circles in which this old body rattles her
perennial bag of bones.’
    ‘My dear Lady Eastmond,
I do very well, and so, I collect, do you, as you show already more energy than
I can command in a twelvemonth. And I am waiting for the third. Which in
fairytales is always rather important and alarming.’
    Lady Eastmond,
uncharacteristically, even uniquely, was silent.
    ‘Dear me. I hope not bad
news.’ Fear rapped at Lydia’s chest. ‘You have heard nothing untoward from my
father?’
    ‘Bless you, nothing of
the shape. Your father is good enough to write me often, and the last I heard
he was very much himself, excited about the discovery of a manuscript fragment
at Boston. Medieval, I fancy. The very word puts me flat in the dismals but
then I’ve no more brain than a butterfly. No, the third, my dear, is a sort of
request, but nothing of great consequence. Now my memory is going with my teeth
but I think the last time we met — wasn’t it at the Hanover Square
concert-rooms, where there was that frightful Italian singer?’
    ‘Madame Bartolini. Her
voice is not what it was five years ago, though I think she makes better faces
now.’
    ‘And there, I believe,
you told me you would be leaving town before the end of April.’
    ‘Just so: I depart for
Heystead tomorrow.’
    ‘Ah, a pity, we might
have travelled up to Lincolnshire together, but I cannot think of leaving
before next week — I have been donkey enough to promise two friends my
attendance at their receptions, sad dull squeezes you would find them and
doubtless so shall I, but then as Henry often reproaches me I have never
learned to say no. And here’s an example for you,’ Lady Eastmond said, with her
liquid laugh, gripping her bonnet with both hands. ‘You’re too well-bred to
stare as you want to, my dear, but trust me I am thoroughly aware that no
scarecrow ever looked more hideous — only my milliner was so very persuasive
and before I knew it the disastrous purchase was made. Thirty years younger,
and handsomer than I ever was, and one might carry it off.’
    The hat was a crimson
crownless straw with very little brim, fastening under the chin, and topped
with black plumes. Not a hat to flatter large features or a sallow complexion;
and Lady Eastmond, never of delicate looks, was at nearly sixty as brown as a
root with a face little smaller than a horse’s. Yet it was a face in its way
splendid, and easy to live with. The great Roman nose alone was like a
declaration of unaffected honesty. She was Lydia’s godmother: much loved by
her: much liked by her vast circle of acquaintance. She possessed both warmth
and sense, but not so much of the first as to make people sneer at her, nor so
much of the second as to make them fear her.
    ‘I like the hat very
well,’ Lydia said. ‘It has a — decided air. Will you have a glass of ratafia?’
    ‘Bless you for a
charming fibster, my dear, and thank you, the only cordial I need is the sight
of you, and now where were we? At the concert-rooms to be sure - and there, I
don’t need to remind you with your prodigious memory, I introduced you to my
ward, Miss Rae. The work of a moment, alas, as I recollect the little