The Trespass Read Online Free PDF

Aunt Lucretia, ‘but of course I meant the social side, the feminine skills.’
    ‘We studied “Etiquette for the Ladies: Eighty Maxims in Dress, Manners and Accomplishment”,’ said Augusta.
    ‘How to Carve, When to Wear Gloves, When to Pay Calls,’ said Harriet dutifully.
    ‘Exactly!’ said Aunt Lucretia. ‘Alice, show Harriet your album!’
    Alice obediently showed Harriet the marbled album. Inside the other girls at the school had written suitable sentiments or verses, or made small drawings. A round childish hand had laboriously written:
    To my dearest Friend Alice
    Shall I compare THEE to a summer’s day?
    next to a pressed violet. And a teacher, a Miss Spence, had written some sort of quotation:
    Whatever may be the talents and energies of a woman they must be shaded by sweetness, veiled by modesty, or else much of what the eye looks for and the heart expects in woman, will be wanting.
    The doors burst open and the gentlemen joined the ladies.
    ‘Now, my dear Harriet,’ said Uncle William, ‘you must be tired after your long journey but shall we have a song before you retire?’
    ‘Oh yes!’ cried Asobel, clapping her hands and running to her father. ‘A song with the piano. May I play, Papa? I have been practising!’
    ‘Asobel!’ said Aunt Lucretia.
    ‘Asobel!’ said Augusta.
    ‘Asobel!’ said Alice.
    ‘How long is it since you were last here?’ enquired Cousin John, bending over his cousin and taking her floral teacup. He knew very well it was three years, he had not by any means forgotten his cousin, but she had become extraordinarily beautiful. It quite threw him.
    ‘It is three years, I believe,’ said Harriet. ‘Mary and I were with you in the summer then.’
    ‘And Cousin Mary taught me to read and she has got a funny leg and cannot walk properly.’
    ‘Asobel, it is time you went up to the nursery,’ said Aunt Lucretia, ringing a bell beside her.
    ‘Asobel, bring me my tea,’ said her father, but his oldest daughter Augusta took the tea to him, put it on one of the tables beside his armchair, moved the bowl of wax fruit to one side.
    ‘My dear Harriet,’ said her uncle, ‘have you been warned about the mad rooster?’
    ‘I beg your pardon, Uncle William, I do not believe I have.’
    ‘It is a magnificent specimen or we would have removed it long ago. But it appears to be deranged; it crows in the dead of night. Do not be alarmed.’
    Harriet smiled shyly at her uncle. ‘There are more alarming sounds, I think, in London. I will not be alarmed by a deranged rooster.’
    ‘Well, well, my dear. London is a difficult place at the moment. We are glad to have you here with us.’ There was a moment of silence. Harriet felt them all regarding her, knew she should say something; her uncle, seeing she seemed unable to speak, filled the space.
    ‘Have you observed our new painting?’ He indicated the very large gilt-framed painting of Augusta, Alice and Asobel that hung next to the painting of Queen Victoria. Harriet had indeed observed it. The painter had caught the girls’ expressions; Augusta slightly supercilious, Alice vivacious, Asobel mischievous, but had made them all look nevertheless like cherubs: very pretty and rather plump.
    ‘It is very – agreeable,’ said Harriet shyly.
    ‘Indeed it is,’ said William with great affection. ‘My own girls.’ And he gave a large sigh. ‘Soon our happy family is to be dispersed but—’
    ‘Oh Papa,’ cried Alice, and she ran to his side and knelt beside his chair, ‘I am not going far, you will gain a son, not lose a daughter,’ and she looked as if she would cry.
    ‘There, there, my dear, I know, I know,’ and he kissed her, and the blood rushed, unbidden, to Harriet’s face. She saw how easy they were with each other and yet she felt her heart beating wildly.
    ‘You will agree, Harriet, that the artist has painted my girls very well.’
    ‘Indeed, Uncle William, they are – angelic.’
    ‘Now where is our music