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THE FLOWER BENEATH
THE FOOT
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Printed in Great Britain by the Riverside Press LimitedEdinburgh3
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THE
FLOWER BENEATH
THE FOOT
BEING A RECORD OF THE EARLY LIFE OF
ST. LAURA DE NAZIANZI AND THE
TIMES IN WHICH SHE LIVED

BY
RONALD FIRBANK
WITH A DECORATION BY C. R. W. NEVINSON
AND PORTRAITS BY AUGUSTUS JOHN
AND WYNDHAM LEWIS
LONDON
GRANT RICHARDS LTD.
1923
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To
Madame Mathieu and
Mademoiselle Dora Garnier-Pagès
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“Some girls are born organically good: I wasn’t.”
St Laura de Nazianzi.
“It was about my eighteenth year that I conquered my Ego.”
Ibid.
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I
Neither her Gaudiness the Mistressof the Robes, or her Dreaminess theQueen were feeling quite themselves.In the Palace all was speculation. Wouldthey be able to attend the Fêtes in honourof King Jotifa, and Queen Thleeanouheeof the Land of Dates?—Court opinionseemed largely divided. Countess MedusaRappa, a woman easily disturbable, wasprepared to wager what the Countess ofTolga “liked” (she knew), that anotherweek would find the Court shivering beneaththe vaulted domes of the Summer-Palace.
“I fear I’ve no time (or desire) now,Medusa,” the Countess answered, movingtowards the Royal apartments, “formaking bets,” though turning before theante-room door she nodded: “Done!”
She found her sovereign supine on acouch piled with long Tunisian cushions,10while a maid of honour sat reading to heraloud :
“Live with an aim, and let that aim behigh!” the girl was saying as the Countessapproached.
“Is that you, Violet?” her Dreaminessenquired without looking round.
“How is your condition, Madam?” theCountess anxiously murmured.
“Tell me, do, of a place that soothes andlulls one——?”
The Countess of Tolga considered.
“Paris,” she hazarded.
“Ah! Impossible.”
“The Summer-Palace, then,” theCountess ejaculated, examining her longslender fingers that were like the tendrilsof a plant.
“Dr Cuncliffe Babcock flatly forbidsit,” the Royal woman declared, startingslightly at the sound of a gun: “Thatmust be the Dates!” she said. And ineffect, a vague reverberation, as of individualscheering, resounded fitfully fromafar. “Give me my diamond anemones,”the Queen commanded, and motioning to11her Maid: “Pray conclude, mademoiselle,those lofty lines.”
With a s                        
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