Keeping the Castle Read Online Free PDF Page A

result of her claiming that, as she was my elder, I must allow her to go first. I protested that the rules of precedence were not meant to be so strictly observed in casual encounters between family members, especially while ascending the pokey back staircase next to the butler’s pantry when I had my small brother in my arms. I therefore went on ahead of her. The ensuing scuffle had resulted in the rents I now needed to disguise.
    This episode, incidentally, had left its mark on my spirit; ever afterward I found myself unable to mount a staircase without thinking of Mr. Coleridge’s immortal words:
     
Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
     
    I know I ought to be more charitable towards my stepsisters, but it is quite beyond my power.
    In the end I gathered the hem every few inches to create a scalloped effect. Since the dress was no more than a slender white wisp of gauze with cap sleeves and a low neckline, this modification seemed to me charming rather than ornate, and the mended tears quite vanished in the pleats thus formed. Any family jewels had long since been sold, and so with some fresh flowers from the garden and a satin ribbon to tie back my curls, my toilet was complete.
    When once little Alexander had been put to bed—he wept at our going and we had to promise to bring home a handful of sweetmeats from the ball before he consented to stay with Annie, Mama’s maid—it was time to leave.
    Our carriage was a battered old chaise, and rather small to convey four passengers. We were obliged to sit nearly on top of one another, a fact that my stepsisters felt to be so injurious to their dignity that they insisted on stopping to alight a good way from the front entrance of Gudgeon Park, so that they would not be observed scrambling out of such a crowded and humble vehicle. I was doubtful about the weather, fearing we should find ourselves wetted through before reaching shelter, and said as much. However, my mother was anxious to please her stepdaughters and overrode my protests. She climbed out and I followed. Prudence and Charity, finding themselves much more comfortably circumstanced now we were got down, decided to remain in the carriage and be conveyed right up to the door rather than walking the rest of the way.
    “You do not mind, Stepmama? I am sure you do not, for you are all goodness,” said Charity.
    “Oh, pray go ahead and do not regard us,” said my saintly mother, while I fumed by her side. “It is no more than a step or two to the house, and it would be a shame to crush your lovely gowns any further.”
    “Mama!” I cried as the chaise rolled away. “Those ill-bred, ungrateful—”
    “Hush,” she said. “It does not signify at all, my dear. We are but a few yards from the door—”
    “But those rain clouds!”
    “And I flatter myself that we have timed our arrival to a nicety. The storm will hold off until—”
    C-r-rack! Boom!
    The heavens opened and rain poured down upon us. Mama clasped my hand and we ran for the great stone staircase fronting the house. We could not wait for the footman to escort us with his sheltering umbrella, but burst unceremoniously through the doorway. We found ourselves under the critical gaze of Mrs. Westing and her butler, who were greeting guests in the front hall.
    “How excessively wet you are,” remarked Mrs. Westing, regarding us through a lorgnette. “Withins, fetch something for the ladies to dry themselves with.”
    “How kind,” said my mother. “As you can see, and hear—” the thunder boomed out again, “the tempest is upon us.”
    Withins did not bestir himself, but snapped his fingers at a maid, who went to fetch us some dry cloths.
    “How good it was of you to invite us!” continued my mother, attempting to salvage the situation. “And how wonderful to see a ball at Gudgeon