Lissa by Mira Stables

Author:Mira Stables [Stables, Mira]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2018-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Because she had grown up in the village, Lissa was accustomed to a greater degree of freedom than was usually permitted to a young lady. It never occurred to her to ask anyone’s permission when she wished to stroll abroad, far less to request the proper chaperonage of maid or companion on her excursions. And since she and Mary were almost inseparable and she had never chanced to go beyond the limits of the estate unaccompanied the wisdom of such behaviour had never been called in question.

On this particular Thursday afternoon, however, Mary was fully occupied with fittings for the new dresses that Miss Parminter had ordered, a proceeding which, she gloomily prophesied, was like to take up most of the afternoon, with Madame so very particular about the cut of a sleeve or the set of a skirt, and unwilling to let the dressmaker depart until her meticulous standards were satisfied.

Nanty had been confined to the house for several days with sharp attack of rheumatism, unable, for once, to fulfil her regular engagement at the Place. Knowing how much she would miss this high treat of her week, Lissa decided to run down to the village to see her while Mary was busy with Miss Kemble. There could be no danger of carrying any infection back to her delicate friend since rheumatism was not catching, and no other consideration occurred to her.

The afternoon was one of April’s loveliest and her visit was a great success. She found Nanty much recovered, smiling in the warmth of the gentle sunlight and delighted to hear all the snippets of information from the big house, from the colours of the new spring dresses to the great kindness that the Comtesse used towards her two charges and the latest news in the letter that Lissa had received from Miss Parminter. No definite date was fixed as yet for that lady’s return, though it now seemed likely that General Carnforth would recover to plague his servants for some time yet. His outspoken criticism of the conduct of the war, in particular of the pitiful inadequacy of the force that had been dispatched to the Low Countries to reinforce the Dutch in the defence of their frontiers had been triumphantly vindicated, and this had exercised a revivifying effect on his spirits. His physician, more exhausted than the patient, had hopefully suggested a course of the waters at Tunbridge Wells, or better still—since it was further from Town—at Bath, but no decision had yet been reached as to which of these salubrious spots should be so honoured.

All these details were meat and drink to Mrs. Wayburn who waved a beaming farewell from the doorway and reiterated that it would not be necessary for Lissa to visit her the following Thursday since she was sure to be well enough to resume her usual habits. Time had passed more quickly than Lissa had realised and she hastened her steps, wishing to pick a posy of the primroses that she had noticed growing in sheltered spots under the hedge on her way down the lane.

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