The House of Happiness Read Online Free PDF

in. She walked through the scullery to the kitchen and there made for the door which led into the corridor.
    Bridget followed at her heels.
    â€œYour great-aunt had a visitor this evening,” she said.
    â€œWho was it?”
    â€œA Lady Biscuit or something,” answered Bridget with a shrug. “She didn’t stay long.”
    Since Bridget had nothing more to add, Eugenia opened the door and climbed up the stairs to the entrance hall. Here she removed her coat and hat. Just in time! As the supper gong sounded, Great-Aunt Cloris opened her drawing room door. 
    â€œAh! Eugeeeenia. Have you been asleep? The house was very quiet all afternoon.”
    Eugenia could not meet her narrowed eye.
    â€œY-yes, great-aunt.  I was asleep.”
    She nodded. “Well.  You missed a visit from an old friend of mine. No matter.  Let us go in to supper.  Needless to say, your mother will not be joining us!”
    Great-Aunt Cloris was uncharacteristically garrulous over the fish supper.  Eugenia barely listened. She prodded at her meal listlessly, her mind on the unfortunate encounter with the Marquis.
    It was very – gallant of him to come to her rescue, she supposed, but what must he think of her, alone in the park like that? She coloured as she imagined the construction the Marquis might make of it all.
    She refused to consider the fact that the Marquis had been good to her father – had indeed treated him more as a friend than as an employee. She refused to dwell on the fact that the Marquis had been kind to her when she was a little girl at her first Christmas party. 
    As far as she was concerned, the more decidedly she could thwart her mother’s designs, the better.  The unfavourable first impression she had made on the Marquis at the soirée must now be compounded by the encounter in the park. Nothing her mother might do or say could rectify that.
    The Marquis could now be even more definitively struck from the list of her prospective suitors!
    In this, Eugenia was to be proved completely wrong!
    *
    The visit from her friend Lady Bescombe had set Great-Aunt Cloris thinking. Lady Bescombe’s portrait had recently been painted – ‘for posterity’. The artist, one Gregor Brodosky, though apparently well known in his native Russia, was not yet established in England. This fact was of no concern to Great-Aunt Cloris except insofar as it meant he could not charge overmuch for his services.
    Posterity had never greatly appealed to Great-Aunt Cloris. She had always suspected that it would entail a great deal of expense. The prospect of posterity at no great cost, however, attracted her greatly.  She also became convinced that, suitably framed and hung, she would be able to keep an eye on household expenditure long after her demise.
    This last idea clinched the matter.  She took up her pen and wrote to Mr. Gregor Brodosky, care of the Moskova Club, Kensington.
    Eugenia and her mother were astonished when Great-Aunt Cloris announced her intention. Privately Mrs. Dovedale considered that the money might be better spent on a new wardrobe for Eugenia. She mentioned that she had heard of this artist, Brodosky, from Lady Granton, who had described him as enigmatic and devilishly handsome. He was setting many a lady’s heart aflutter.  Great-Aunt Cloris said she had no interest in such matters.
    â€œI shall not be looking at him ,” she remarked imperiously.  “Rather, he will be looking at me .”
    The idea of being looked at took such root in Great-Aunt Cloris, that the following morning she sent Eugenia to Bond Street Arcade to purchase some rouge and lip colour.
    Eugenia undertook the task with alacrity. She enjoyed strolling through the Arcade, looking at all the pretty items in the shops.
    Bridget, who accompanied her, shifted the basket on her arm and grunted.
    â€œYou’ll have all them things one day, miss.”
    â€œNot