Intermezzo Read Online Free PDF Page B

enough, we were both going to go off to Oxford where Jon would study and I would marry a don. My brother was to be a vicar, you see, and we would each of us raise an enormous family of musicians and, together, we would have a small orchestra.”
    “What is a don?”
    “A professor at a university, Becka, a wise and learned man.”
    “Well, if he is so wise and learned he is bound to have his head in the clouds and will never notice you dressed in gray with an ugly widow’s cap covering an even uglier chignon. You will simply have to do something ... Wait here just a moment.” Becka darted from the room to return shortly with a delicate paisley shawl in shades of blue, green, and violet silk.
    “Will you wear it, Adela? It was my mother’s.”
    The child looked up at her with her face eager and her eyes beginning to water over.
    Adela knew she ought to refuse the gift, but a great deal more than a piece of silk was being offered and she could not bring herself to reject the offering.
    “Are you quite certain you want me to wear this shawl, Becka?”
    “Yes, Adela, I am quite certain.”
    Later that same evening, when Rebecka had gone up to bed and Adela had retreated to the music room, Waterston and Lady Spencer were alone in the drawing room.
    “Come, come, Charles, you are not precisely a reclusive gentleman, and one always assumes that work in the foreign office entails some entertainment of visiting dignitaries.”
    “Oh, I am not objecting to Count Orlov, but to be obliged to give even a modest ball next month for the Austrian ambassador seems a bit excessive.”
    “I understand that the Austrian ambassador himself is just a bit excessive.”
    “Just so. And I shall need an official hostess. I am volunteering you, Sophia,” he said, just a hint of request in his voice.
    “I would be delighted to help, Charles. I have always fancied myself a diplomat, you know. Oh no, don’t you go raising that eyebrow, Charles, and looking skeptical. I can assure you that, in my own way, I am a master diplomat.”
    “Undoubtedly, Sophia. And, in any case, you would have no trouble managing a formal ball for a mere sixty or seventy people. His excellency, the ambassador, is a stickler for formality.”
    “So I have been told.” Sophia smiled.
    “Incidentally, my dearest aunt, I do not mean to impose on you in this matter. Soames and his wife are quite capable of arranging the logistics of the evening and Diana has volunteered to select the guests, the menu, and the decorations. She is, Lord knows, more than qualified to do so. No, Sophia, I ask you only to act as my official hostess.”
    “It would of course be a bit premature to ask Lady Diana to do so, would it not, Charles?”
    “A trifle premature yes ... It is settled then; you need only appear and grace the evening with your commanding presence.”
    “Settled. I suppose I shall use the ball as an excuse to purchase an extravagant new ball gown.”
    “You, my dear, are the only lady of my acquaintance who seems to require an excuse to buy a gown.”
    “No, there you are quite out, Charles,” Sophia mused. “I have been looking to find a subtle way to improve Miss Trowle’s wardrobe, but she will, I suspect, have nothing to do with it. I think I must forceably purchase her some clothes.” Sophia hesitated, waiting for some response from Waterston.
    “And you are asking my permission?”
    “No, of course I am not asking your permission, stoopid. I am asking for your support. That girl is proud, stubborn, and absolutely determined to look her worst. You might help me to convince her to accept a gown or two from me.”
    “Why, pray tell, might I do anything of the sort? It won’t wash, Sophia. What possible difference can it make to me what gown Miss Trowle chooses to wear?”
    “Surely you have noticed how very poorly Miss Trowle is dressed.”
    “Miss Trowle’s clothes, now that I think of it, are plain and so I might add is her person. There is no