"I think I will get up in half an hour, if you will be good enough to
send Molly up to me," said Mrs. Lorton, sinking onto her pillow as if
exhausted by her struggle with the chocolate.
"Yes, mamma," assented the girl. "What will you have for lunch?"
"Lunch!" sighed Mrs. Lorton, with an assumption of weary indifference.
"It is really of no consequence, Eleanor. I eat so little, especially in
the middle of the day. Perhaps if you could get me a sweetbread I might
manage a few morsels. But do not trouble. You know how much I dislike
causing trouble. A sweetbread nicely browned--on a small, a very small
piece of toast; quite dry, please, Eleanor."
"Yes, mamma, I know," said Eleanor; but she looked out of the window
rather doubtfully. Sweetbreads were not easily obtained at the only
butcher's shop in the village; and, when they were, they were dear; but
she had just paid the long-running bill, and---"I'll go up to Smart's and see about it," she said. "Is there anything
you want in the village, mamma?"
Mrs. Lorton sighed again; she rarely spoke without a sigh.
"If you really want the walk and are going, Eleanor, you might ask Mrs.
Porter if she has got that toilet vinegar for me. She promised to get it
down from London quite a week ago. It is really too ridiculous! But what
can one expect in this hole, and living among a set of barbarians? I
know that I shall never grow accustomed to this life of savagery; my
memory of the past is too acute, alas! But I must stifle it; I must
remember that the great trial of my life has been sent for my good, and
I will never complain. Not one word of discontent shall ever pass my
lips. My dear Eleanor, you surely are not going to be so mad as to open
that window! And my neuralgia only just quiet!"
"I beg your pardon, mamma. The room seemed so hot, and I forgot. I've
closed it again; see! Let me draw the eider-down up; that's it. I won't
forget the toilet vinegar."
"I thank you, Eleanor; and you might get this week's _Fashion Gazette_.
It is the only paper I care for; but it is not unnatural that I should
like to see it occasionally. One may be cut off from all one's friends
and relations, may be completely out of the world of rank and
refinement, but one likes now and then to read of the class to which one
belongs, but from which one is, alas! forever separated."