l, and the flippancy of her maturer years, which tended to high heels and Paris frocks, wore a new hat.
1а
52. /Td>
She was a woman of thirty-seven, rather tall and plump,
without being fat; she was not pretty, but her face was
pleasing, chiefly, perhaps, on account of her kind brown eyes.
11
53. /Td>
She was the only woman of the three whose face was
free of make-up, and by contrast with the others she seemed simple and unaffected.
4, 20а
54. /Td>
The dining-room was in the good taste of the period.
1а
55. /Td>
There was a high dado of white wood and a green
paper on which were etchings by Whistler in neat black frames.
9
56. /Td>
The green curtains with their peacock design, hung in straight lines, and the green carpet, in the pattern of which pale rabbits frolicked among leafy trees, suggested the influence of William Morris. /Td>
1а, 2а
57. /Td>
Looking back, I think that Mrs. Strickland was the most
harmless of all the lion-hunters that pursue their quarry from the rarefied heights of Hampstead to the nethermost studios of Cheyne Walk. /Td>
4, 1а, 1а
58. /Td>
She had a real passion for reading (rare in her kind, who for the most part are more interested in the author than in his book, in the painter than in his pictures), and she invented a world of the imagination in which she lived with a freedom she never acquired in the world of every day. /Td>
5, 11
59. /Td>
When she came to know writers it was like adventuring upon a stage which till then she had known only from the other side of the footlights.
1а
60. /Td>
She accepted the rules with which they played the game of life as valid for them, but never for a moment thought of regulating her own conduct in accordance with them.
1а, 20б
61. /Td>
I could not think of any retort to this, so I asked if Mrs.
Strickland had children.
20б
62. /Td>
The subject was exhausted, and we began to talk of other things.
20б
63. /Td>
I was very young, and perhaps she liked the idea of guiding my virgin steps on the hard road of letters; while
for me it was pleasant to have someone I could go to with my small troubles, certain of an attentive ear and reasonable counsel. /Td>
20б, 11, 20б
64. /Td>
Mrs. Strickland had the gift of sympathy.
11
65. /Td>
When, in the enthusiasm of my youth, I remarked on this to Rose Waterford, she said:
"Milk is very nice, especially with a drop of brandy in it,
but the domestic cow is only too glad to be rid of it. "
1а, 5, 20а
66. /Td>
And you felt sure that she was an admirable mother. There were photographs in the drawing-room of her son and daughter.
1б
67. /Td>
The son - his name was Robert - was a boy of sixteen at Rugby; and you saw him in flannels and a cricket cap, and again in a tail-coat and a stand-up collar. /Td>
11
68. /Td>
She smiled, her smile was really very sweet, and she blushed a little; it was singular that a woman of that age should flush so readily. /Td>
11
69. /Td>
She smiled to cover her shyness, and I fancied she had a fear that I would make the sort of gibe that such a confession could hardly have failed to elicit from Rose Waterford. /Td>
7
70. /Td>
One morning Mrs. Strickla...
