The Awkward Age

who had remained quite on her own sid

h a casual advance and a look not so much at

laces. To Bra

d it was quite groundless, in Buckingham Crescent, ever to enter the drawing-room with an expression suspicious of disloyalty. The Duchess was a woman who so cultivated her passions that she would have regarded it as disloyal to introduce there a new piece of furniture in an underhand way-that is without a full appeal to herself, the highest authority, and the consequent bestowal of opportunity to nip the mistake in the bud. Mr

e didn't tell me. But they'

nary mixtures. Has h

ote-which he showed me, but which only mentioned 'some friends'-was a sort o

it. "She writes the mos

ookenham said-"from a woman of her age an

can and she's not on the stage. Aren't those what you cal

Harold's a

ess replied. She smiled at her hostess. "Your child

d Mrs. Brookenham as if she wish

to pronounce that eminently natural, but no pronouncement came-nothing but the footman who had answer

going anywhere. I haven't of a sudden changed my habits. You know whether I leave my child-except in the sense of having left her an hou

here do you

ea. Where shou

er, any responsibility of thought; she did indeed mu

t they do with their afternoons," the Duchess went o

ave Aggie

eerfully. "You're off for Easter

the moment was to look as sweetly resigned as if she really saw what was in them. Where were they going for Easter? She had to think an

smiled the Duchess.

uppose. A lot of my lord

Then why are you p

w do I know, my dear Jane, why in the world we're ever asked anywhere? Fancy people

moreover, in this endeavour, with a lurking no less than with a public foe, and thoroughly aware that if she didn't look well she might at times only, and quite dreadfully, look good. There were definite ways of escape, none of which she neglected and from the total of which, as she flattered herself, the air of distinction almost mathematically resulted. This air corresponded superficially with her acquired Calabrian sonorities, from her v

am, on Nanda's behalf, fairly radiated obscurity

" the Duchess returned. "But

y different from that-"if you mean socially, I don't do anything at all. I've never pretended to do anything. You know as well as I do, dear Jane,

little rather grimly sile

sweetness. Then with no transition of tone:

he co

t. They go down together to-morrow. Why ha

ndsomely stare

e, to se

irly looking again about the r

in the world." Mrs. Brookenham never looked so comparatively hopeful

the Duchess, "has she s

as the movements of the red-haired footman that Mrs. Bro

ld, I promise you, if I could get at her

ttle embroidered tea-cloth. "Do

of relief they represented. They might have been a habit proceeding from the fear of undue impatience. If the Duchess had been as impatient with Mrs. Brookenham as

That's the place I SHOULD have liked for Agg

you're so good as to ask why Aggie has fallen off you'll excuse my telling you that you've just named the reason. You've known ever since

once, Jane"-and her tone, in its appeal, was almost infantine-"that you've come at last

will you have? I must recognise the predicament I'm placed in by the more and more extraordinary development of English manners. Many things have altered, goodness knows, since I was Aggie's age, but nothing's so different as what you all do with your girls. It's all a muddle, a compromise, a monstrosity, like everything else you produce; there's nothing in it that goes on all-fours. I see but one consistent way, which is our fine old foreign way and which makes-in the upper classes, mind you, for it's with them only I'm concerned-des femmes bien gracieuses. I allude to the immemorial custom of my husband's race, which was good enough for his mother and his mother's mother, for Aggie's own, for his other sisters, for toutes ces dames. It would have been good enough for my child, as I call her-my dear husband called her HIS-if, not losing her par

y it's very charming and old-fashioned and, if you like, aristocratic, in a frowsy foolish old way-though even upon that, at the same time, there would be something too to be said. But I can only congratulate you on finding it more workable than there can be any question of MY finding it. If you're all armed for the sacrifices you speak of I simply am not. I don't think I'm quite a monster, but I don't pretend to be a saint. I'm an Engl

aid the Duchess with spi

m gently rang out-"of such mingled intertwisted strands!" Then still

monde so immensely initiated should-well," said the Duchess with a toss

uld as soon think of applying such a term to a little shivering shorn lamb. Is it your theory," Mrs

ones-are not on the lookout for little brides whose usual associates are so up to snuff. It's not their idea that the girls they marry shall already have been pitchforked-by talk and contacts and visits and newspapers and by th

emembering her manners: "Won't you eat something?" She indicated a particular plate. "One of the nice little round ones?" The Duchess appropriated a nice little r

l imperturbably before she took

lls it; but he said yesterday that he'd come today. I've had tea earlier for you," she went on with h

ged to consider him, for he has not of late particularly put himself out for me. He has not b

t was Mr. Mitchett, the other year,

Duchess, "had first b

, looked for an instant as if trying to re

if you only MAKE them

Brookenham added: "Did he b

of them has seen, in my house, the tip of her nos

ur ideas that d

ent w

pose you call t

superlatively hideous-for a reason I don't at all mind telling you. Don't be outraged if I say that I've for a long time hoped you yourself would find the right use for him." She paused-at present with a momentary failure of assurance, from which she rallied, however, to proceed with a burst of earnestness that was fairly noble. "Forgive me if I just tell you once for all how it strikes me, I'm stupefied at your not seeming to recognise either your interest or your duty. Oh I kn

r, during her visitor's address had distinctly risen, but there was no irrita

lish false positions! J'aime, moi, les situations nettes-je rien comprends pas d'autres. It wouldn't be to your honour-to that of your delicacy-that wit

seem to care, but that she had other dislikes too. "If one were to take up, you know, some of the things you say-!" And she positively sighed for the wealth of amusement at them of which her tears were the sign. Her friend could quite match her indifference. "Well, my child, TAKE them up; if you

er w

tt. Mr. Mitchett won't tak

ake her at all?" Then as the Duchess hung fire a mom

have been a consequence of it in the manner of what came. "I've got

ter wait till you HAVE made Aggie's fortune perhaps-to be so sure of the working of your system. Pardon me, darling, if I don't take you for an example until you'v

the clock. "What's Mr.

by anxiously thinking. "Oh, HE, I'm a

her appetite, and now, drawing it on, she s

ame as

ike them than

things in the world. So you think poor Mitchy," she went on, "who's the son of a

e. "I look facts in the face. It's exactly what I'm doing for Agg

asterful relative and an exposed frivolity, might have been the s

are worse fates than shoemakers and grasshoppers. Even WITH one, you know, I don't at all say that I should sniff at poor Mitchy. We must take what we can get and I shall be

n offer him

you don't do her justice. I don't say Mr. Mitchett's either beautiful or noble, and he certainly hasn't as much distinction as would cover the point of a pin. He doesn't mind moreover what he says-the lengths he sometimes goes to!-but t

d up at her friend. "Is it by Lord Pether

so that she made allowances. "I go by my impr

id Mrs. Brookenham-"since

chess stared, but rather in amusement th

erty. Didn't you KNOW?" There was an ar

self here and choosing my friends and picking my steps very much, I can

ocial scandal!" Mrs. Brook

the way I tell you of to stop it. Dive

enham kept up her tone. "He's always giving u

ME any," the Duchess

on has the giving of some. He has never in his

eaching the door, the Duchess changed the subject. "You s

wondered. "Do

will be something to do with her

ring her. And I think she

nd him here

e the c

her, and Mrs. Brookenham still at her tea-table-a further stroke of intercourse, over which the latter was not on this occasion

air, de

meet on the landing-heard also the Duchess protest against his turning to see her down. Mrs. Brookenham, listening to them, hoped Edward would accept the protest and think it sufficient to leave her with t