Let him too get more firmly fixed in heaven. Once fixed he wouldn't
mind anything.
Her face sparkled with delight at the instantaneous effect of San
Salvatore. Even the catastrophe of the bath, of which she had been
told when she came in from the garden, had not shaken him. Of course
all that he had needed was a holiday. What a brute she had been to him
when he wanted to take her himself to Italy. But this arrangement, as
it happened, was ever so much better, though not through any merit of
hers. She talked and laughed gaily, not a shred of fear of him left in
her, and even when she said, struck by his spotlessness, that he looked
so clean that one could eat one's dinner off him, and Scrap laughed,
Mellersh laughed too. He would have minded that at home, supposing
that at home she had had the spirit to say it.
It was a successful evening. Scrap, whenever she looked at Mr.
Wilkins, saw him in his towel, dripping water, and felt indulgent.
Mrs. Fisher was delighted with him. Rose was a dignified hostess in
Mr. Wilkins's eyes, quiet and dignified, and he admired the way she
waived her right to preside at the head of the table--as a graceful
compliment, of course, to Mrs. Fisher's age. Mrs. Arbuthnot was,
opined Mr. Wilkins, naturally retiring. She was the most retiring of
the three ladies.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228