Some day she meant to burn that photograph
lest unsympathetic hands should touch it when she died; but death
still seemed far off, and sometimes, even while she was talking to
Caroline, she would pretend to rummage in the drawer, and for a moment
she would close her hand upon the photograph to tell him she had not
forgotten. She loved her little romance, and the gaiety in which she
had persisted, even on the day when she heard of his death and which
at first had seemed a necessary but cruel disloyalty, had become in
her mind the tenderest of concealments, as though she had wrapped her
secret in beauty, laughter, music and shining garments.
'Oh, yes, dear Rose,' she said, lifting her head, 'you must be
married.'
2
The outward life of the Mallett household was elegant and ordered.
Footsteps fell quietly on the carpeted stairs and passages; doors were
quietly opened and closed. The cook and the parlourmaid were old and
trusted servants; the house and kitchen maids were respectable young
women fitting themselves for promotion, and their service was given
with the thoroughness and deference to which the Malletts were
accustomed. In the whole house there was hardly an object without
beauty or tradition, the notable exception being the portrait of
General Mallett which hung above the Sheraton sideboard in the
dining-room, a gloomy daub, honoured for the General's sake.
From the white panelled hall, the staircase with its white banisters
and smooth mahogany rail led to a square landing which branched off
narrowly on two sides, and opening from the square were the bedroom
occupied by Rose, the one shared by her stepsisters and the one which
had been Reginald's.
Pages:
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38