United States or United States Virgin Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
As the cob rattled into Hillport, that aristocratic and plutocratic suburb of the town, that haunt of exclusiveness, that retreat of high life and good tone, she thought how commonplace, vulgar, and petty was the opulent existence within those tree-shaded villas, and that she was doomed to droop and die there, while her girls, still unfledged, might, if they had the sense to use their wings, fly away.... Yet at the same time it gratified her to reflect that she and hers were in the picture, and conformed to the standards; she enjoyed the admiration which the sight of herself and Ethel and the expensive cob and cart and accoutrements must arouse in the punctilious and stupid breast of Hillport.
The next day Ethel had a further reprieve of several hours, for Stanway said that he must go over to Hanbridge in the morning, and would come back to Hillport for dinner, and escort Ethel to the works immediately afterwards. None asked a question, but everyone knew that he could only be going to Hanbridge to consult with David Dain. This time the programme was in fact executed.
'I shall see, he ejaculated. And after a pause, 'John's i' smooth water again, isn't he? I meant to ask Dain. 'I think so, said Leonora. She had become restive. Soon afterwards she bade him good-night and departed. And all the way up to Hillport she speculated upon the chances of finding Arthur in her drawing-room when she got home.
On the Saturday evening only Sneyd and Mrs Lovatt came up to Hillport, Enoch Lovatt being away from home. Therefore there were no cards; they talked of the Eardley affair. "You'll have to manage with the old organ now," was one of the first things that Peake said to Mrs Lovatt, after he had recited his own woe. He smiled grimly as he said it. "I don't see why," Sneyd remarked.
They had to cross the station by the under-ground passage and wait twenty minutes for a squalid, shambling local train which took them to Shawport, at the foot of the rise to Hillport. About three months after its rendering of Patience, the Bursley Amateur Operatic Society arranged to give a commemorative dance in the very scene of that histrionic triumph.
'Really, said Twemlow, emphasising still further his seriousness. 'Has she ever been taught? 'Only by a local teacher up here at Hillport, Leonora told him. 'She ought to have lessons from a first-class master. 'Why? asked Stanway abruptly. 'Well, Twemlow said, 'you never know 'You honestly think her voice is worth cultivating? John demanded, impelled to participate in Twemlow's gravity.
"The fact is," she added, "I want to show you a house up at Hillport that might do for us." He winced. She had said nothing about a removal for quite some time. He hated the notion of removal. As for Hillport, he was sure that nothing, except cottages, could be got in Hillport for less than fifty pounds a year.
She would have given a year of life, in that first moment, to be helping her mother in some despised monotonous household task at Hillport. She felt that she was being outrageously deprived of a natural right, hitherto enjoyed without let, to have the golden fruits of labour brought to her in discreet silence as to their origin.
She imagined Marian, the eldest, and her babies, in London; and Charlie, also in London, practising medicine; and Tom and Janet and Alicia at the party at Hillport; and Jimmie and Johnnie seeing life at Hanbridge; while the parents remained in tranquillity in their bedroom.
She had by no means recovered from her amazement; but she had screened it off by main force in her mind, and she was now occupied with something far more important than the blameless amours of the richest old man in Hillport. By Wilbraham Water a young man was walking to and fro in the deep autumn night.
Word Of The Day