Two
WALLPAPER
IA month had passed and Gwenda had moved into Hillside. Giles’s aunt’s furniture had come out of store and wasarranged round the house. It was good quality old-fashioned stuff. One or two over-large wardrobes Gwenda had sold,but the rest fitted in nicely and was in harmony with the house. There were small gay papierm?ché tables in thedrawing room, inlaid with mother-of-pearl and painted with castles and roses. There was a prim¹ little worktable with agathered sack underneath² of pure silk, there was a rosewood bureau and a mahogany sofa table.
The so-called easy chairs Gwenda had relegated³ to various bedrooms and had bought two large squashy wells ofcomfort for herself and Giles to stand each side of the fireplace. The large chesterfield sofa was placed near thewindows. For curtains Gwenda had chosen old-fashioned chintz of pale eggshell blue with prim urns⁴ of roses andyellow birds on them. The room, she now considered, was exactly right.
She was hardly settled yet, since she had workmen in the house still. They should have been out by now, butGwenda rightly estimated that until she herself came into residence, they would not go.
The kitchen alterations⁵ were finished, the new bathrooms nearly so. For further decorating Gwenda was going towait a while. She wanted time to savour her new home and decide on the exact colour schemes she wanted for thebedrooms. The house was really in very good order and there was no need to do everything at once.
In the kitchen a Mrs. Cocker was now installed, a lady of condescending⁶ graciousness, inclined to repulseGwenda’s over-democratic friendliness⁷, but who, once Gwenda had been satisfactorily put in her place, was willing tounbend.
On this particular morning, Mrs. Cocker deposited a breakfast tray on Gwenda’s knees, as she sat up in bed.
“When there’s no gentleman in the house,” Mrs. Cocker affirmed, “a lady prefers her breakfast in bed.” AndGwenda had bowed to this supposedly English

分享到：