Distant Choices Read Online Free PDF Page B

effect, by Evangeline whose arrival as mistress of High Grange began with a flourish, the new Mrs Stangway expressing herself tolerably satisfied with the bedroom and dressing-room prepared for her own use, and with the accommodation provided for her personal maid, but somewhat puzzled by the room ‘dear Maud’ had thought suitable for her daughter.
    â€˜Oh dear …’ she murmured, pausing on the threshold as if waiting for someone to tell her it was all a mistake. ‘How small …’
    â€˜How pretty , mamma.’ Oriel came forward at once to pour balm on troubled waters in the same practised manner in which she had rescued her mother’s wedding hat:
    But Evangeline, turning to Maud with the bright, brisk smile of mistress to head-parlourmaid, had not the least intention of being pacified.
    â€˜Dear Maud – my daughter is so very good-natured, I am sure you have noticed it?’
    â€˜Yes, indeed.’
    â€˜And so much inclined to consider the feelings of others …’
    â€˜I dare say.’
    â€˜â€¦ that she often allows her own feelings to be set aside. An attitude of unselfishness in which …’
    â€˜I am sure you have trained her well, Evangeline.’
    â€˜I have done my best. The room is too small, Maud.’
    â€˜It is of exactly the same proportions as Kate’s.’ Evangeline looked puzzled again, as if wondering what Kate could possibly have to do with it.
    â€˜Poky,’ she said. ‘And dark. A window like a prison cell. Really , Maud.’
    â€˜Mamma,’ murmured Oriel, moving across the fourteen feet or so of rose-patterned carpet to glance out of the perfectly adequate window. ‘There is a carriage on the drive. A landau with – I think – a coat of arms. And two ladies in it. Rather dignified …’
    â€˜I wonder?’ said Evangeline. ‘Lady Merton?’
    And by the time Evangeline had taken tea with her caller – not Lady Merton, alas, the coat of arms having had no existence outside Oriel’s imagination – Oriel had quietly installed herself and all her dainty possessions, her hair-brushes with their mother-of-pearl backs and spotless bristles, her lace-trimmed petticoats and chemises, her winter wardrobe of fine, pale woollen dresses, her summer wardrobe of white lawn, sprigged muslin, crisp cotton, her evening wardrobe of ice-blue silk mousseline and cream-coloured satin, her strands of pearl and coral, her silver-topped bottles of toilet water, her dozens of pairs of gloves to suit every occasion – wrist-length gloves in white kid, pastel suede, embroidered Spanish leather, elbow-length gloves in white or black silk, ribboned gloves, riding gloves, net mittens, gloves of lace and knitted silk and velvet – all neatly placed in an appropriate drawer with her ivory glove-stretcher.
    â€˜I see you have made yourself at home,’ said Maud, who had been excluded – sweetly but firmly – from Evangeline’s tea-party.
    â€˜Yes. It seemed best.’ Oriel’s light blue eyes were polite but very steady.
    â€˜Although somewhat against your mother’s wishes.’
    â€˜Oh – I think she will be pleased to see I have got everything in and will be quite comfortable.’
    But Evangeline, as Maud knew, had been far less concerned with her daughter’s comfort than with making a demonstration of her own authority. And now, having demonstrated it, her daughter might take the perfectly-well-proportioned, prettily-furnished room or not, as seemed best to her. Which was, Maud realized, exactly what this irritatingly self-possessed girl had just told her.
    â€˜You are satisfied then, Miss Blake?’ Maud, spoiling for a fight, rather hoped she was not. For if she could find evidence – now – that the daughter was as tricky and greedy and flighty as the mother, then she would feel justified in striking out at her, and beating her, as she