By nature she was grave and grim, but it was Miss Burden’s opinion that she had never looked quite so grave and quite so grim as in the course of this first interview with the late Lady Augusta’s second daughter.
“Burden,” said she in a truculent aside, “this comes of mixing the breed. Polly was a born fool, but she was never equal to this. What is to be done with the creature? It was my intention to marry her respectably so that she might be a help to her family, who are as poor as mice and who appear to live like pigs. But who, pray, will marry a natural?”
Miss Burden, however, was at heart incurably lenient in her judgments. She demurred with a vigor she seldom displayed.
“She is a singularly beautiful girl,” said Miss Burden, with enthusiasm. “Her manner is delightfully her own, and she is formed like a goddess and she is perfectly charming.”
“Faugh!” said the old lady, ruthlessly. “Burden, you are a born fool. The creature is an idiot. Look at her now.”
Miss Perry had renounced her chair for political reasons. She was sitting now in the middle of the sofa. Her lips were slightly parted and one finger was unmistakably in her mouth. Her great blue eyes were gazing far away into vacancy. Also they appeared to be slightly moist. The fact was that at that moment Miss Perry was back at the Parsonage at Slocum Magna. Her sister Polly was pouring out tea for seven in really sensible cups, and Miss Perry herself was occupied in carving a piece of bread according to her personal fancy. At the Parsonage it was the very rational rule always to cut your own bread and spread your own jam; both of which, being made at home, were among the very few things of which you could have as much as you wanted.
It was doubtless an unfortunate moment for the higher criticism to observe Miss Perry.
“An extraordinary creature,” said the old lady.
“I am reminded of some one,” said Miss Burden, “yet I cannot think who it can be. It is somebody who is celebrated.”
“That abandoned straw hat!” said the old lady. “It appears to have been originally used for carrying vegetables.”