THE VISITS OF ELIZABETH
By ELINOR GLYN
TWENTY SECOND EDITION.
Cambridge U.S.A.
MDCCCI (1901)
Contents
NAZEBY HALL
It was perhaps a fortunate thing for Elizabeth that her ancestors wentback to the Conquest, and that she numbered at least two Countesses anda Duchess among her relatives. Her father had died some years ago, and,her mother being an invalid, she had lived a good deal abroad. But, atabout seventeen, Elizabeth began to pay visits among her kinsfolk. Itwas after arriving at Nazeby Hall, for a Cricket Week, that she firstwrote home.
Nazeby Hall, 26th July.
Afternoon Tea
Dearest Mamma,—I got here all right, without even a smut on my face,for Agnès tidied me up in the brougham before we arrived at the gate.The dust in the train was horrid. It is a nice house. They were at teawhen I was ushered in; it was in the hall—I suppose it was because itwas so windy outside. There seemed to be a lot of people there; andthey all stopped talking suddenly, and stared at me as if I were a newthing in the Zoo, and then, after a minute, went on with theirconversations at the point they had left off.
Lady Cecilia pecked my cheek, and gave me two fingers; and asked me, ina voice right up at the top, how were you. I said you were better,and—you know what you told me to say. She murmured something while shewas listening to what a woman with a sweet frock and green eyes wassaying at the other end of the table. There was heaps of tea. She wavedvaguely for me to sit down, which I did; but there was a footstoolnear, and it was half dark, so I fell over that, but not very badly,and got safely to my seat.
Lady Cecilia—continuing her conversation across the room all thetime—poured out a cup of tea, with lumps and lumps of sugar in it,and lots of cream, just what you would give to a child for a treat! andshe handed it to me, but I said, "Oh! please, Lady Cecilia, I don'ttake sugar!" She has such bulgy eyes, and she opened them wide at me,perfectly astonished, and said, "Oh! then please ring the bell; I don'tbelieve there is another clean cup." Everybody stopped talking again,and looked at me, an