III
Lady Matilda Cleckheaton made her entrance into one of the grand recep-tion rooms of the Schloss. It had been a fifteen-mile drive. She had dressedherself with some care, though somewhat to the disapproval¹ of Amy. Amyseldom offered advice, but she was so anxious for her principal to succeedin whatever she was undertaking² that she had ventured this time on amoderate remonstrance³.
‘You don’t think your red dress is really a little worn, if you know what Imean. I mean just beneath the arms, and, well, there are two or three veryshiny patches–’
‘I know, my dear, I know. It is a shabby dress but it is nevertheless aPatou model. It is old but it was enormously expensive. I am not trying tolook rich or extravagant⁴. I am an impoverished⁵ member of an aristocraticfamily. Anyone of under fifty, no doubt, would despise me. But my hostessis living and has lived for some years in a part of the world where the richwill be kept waiting for their meal while the hostess will be willing to waitfor a shabby, elderly woman of impeccable descent. Family traditions arethings that one does not lose easily. One absorbs them, even, when onegoes to a new neighbourhood. In my trunk, by the way, you will find afeather boa.’
‘Are you going to put on a feather boa?’
‘Yes, I am. An ostrich⁶ feather one.’
‘Oh dear, that must be years old.’
‘It is, but I’ve kept it very carefully. You’ll see, Charlotte will recognizewhat it is. She will think one of the best families in England was reducedto wearing her old clothes that she had kept carefully for years. And I’llwear my sealskin coat, too. That’s a little worn, but such a magnificentcoat in its time.’
Thus arrayed, she set forth⁷. Amy went with her as a well-dressed thoughonly quietly smart attendant.
Matilda Cleckheaton had been prepared for what she saw. A whale, asStafford had told her. A wallowing whale, a

分享到：