Moth and Rust; Together with Geoffrey's Wife and The Pitfall

n thou, my comp

wn familia

hat her dazed mind began to recover itself. It did not recoil in horror from the

herself, in tearless anguish, "C

d to a great strain, a

There was an armchair in the corner, but Janet unconsciously clung to the box, as the only familiar object in an unfamiliar world. Late in the afternoon,

the box and put h

she said;

but hid her convulsed

a cab, and presently she was sitting in a cool, white bedroom leading out of Anne's room; at least Anne said it did. Anne came in an

et was suffering from a great shock, and she sent for the only child there was i

ell asleep, a little ball of comfort against Janet's neck. The white, over-strained face relaxed. Anne's ge

s far as the wilderness, which ceased to be a wilderness when Eve brought forth her firstborn in it. I think she must have forgotten all about her lost G

softly, Janet was asleep, wi

dinner-party for which she was already late, and that knowledge, though long experience had taught her that it was useless to meet him, that he would certainly not speak to her if he could help it, still the knowledge that she should see him caused a faint colour to burn in her pal

lushed a deep red. She stirred uneasily, a

over and over again. "A

she held in her hand,

ned her eyes to a horrible

e is nothing left. I promised I would, and I have. But oh! Fred, how could you d

k her by

said. "Wake up. Look! You are h

ound her bewildered, and said in a more natural voice: "I

ther, and he will come an

anet. "It is like a stone on my head. It

thinking of Janet at that moment. "I shall not see him to-night," she was saying to herself. And the delicate colour faded, the hidden tumult died down. She was calm and p

face. But he felt that if his sister must be ill, she could not be better placed than in that ducal household. A good many persons

ind-hearted, determined women, with a long upper lip, whose faces are set on looking upwards, who can make life vulgarly happy for struggling, middle-class men, if they are poor enough to give their wives scope for an unceasing energy on their behalf. She was a femme incomprise, misplaced. By birth she was

wither her, n

nite vul

e she should have ignored, gratuitously confidential where she should have been reticent. She never realized the impression she made on others. She pursued her discomfortable objects of pursuit, n

er "the steam roller," a

ions-all the past life of the victim, as regards illnesses, illnesses of relations, especially if obscure and internal, cause of death of parents, present financial circumstances, etc. Janet, whose strong constitution rapidly rallied from the shock that had momentarily prostrated her, thought these subjects of conversation natural and even exhilarating. She was accustomed to them in her own society. The first time the Smiths had called on her at Ivy Cottage, had they not enquired the exact ar

to thinly-draped designs on Stephen were now clothed only in the recklessness of despair, made Anne's life well-nigh unendurable to her at this time, a constant mortification of her refinement and her pride. She withdrew into herself. And perhaps also Anne was embarra

sed in his society. She had always known that evil existed in the world, but she had somehow managed to combine that knowledge with the comfortable conviction that the fe

er, the signs of intemperance when he was sober, were lost upon her. She dismissed them with the reflection that Fre

iend, and Fre

er during these days. She could not think a

would-be smart woman would not, without some strong reason, have made much of so unfashionable an individual as Janet in the first instance, though there wa

dbury, and, as they drove in the dusk through the

much," said Fred at last, who had also been rest

id not

mon lot. I did not like Mrs Brand as much as you did, Jan

t hoarsely. "I would hav

called to thank him. He was in such a hurry that he hardly had a moment to spare, but I took a great fancy to him. No airs a

no a

ntinued Fred. "George is coming o

" said Janet suddenly, "that Geo

ded. You must lay your account for that, Janet. You

ze what Fred's discovery of

nce

Cottage twinkled through the violet dusk

iend, and Fre

k Mrs Brand-no-of course not--But perhaps you were able to put i

them," said Janet. "I never thought