Maggie MacKeever by The Misses Millikin

Author:The Misses Millikin [Millikin, The Misses]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Lady Chalmers, all unaware, had followed her eldest sister’s example of discretion, and procured for her own use the services of a hackney-coach, a vehicle that offended both her notion of the dignity of her station and her innate fastidiousness. However, there was no alternative. Rosemary had no wish that her husband should learn of her destination, as he was bound to do had she proceeded there in her own dashing cabriolet, which among its other elegancies bore the Chalmers crest. Already Lord Chalmers was suspicious of his wife, as witnessed by his newfound tendency to stick as close to her as a court plaster, to live practically in her pocket, to exhibit what in a less inimical man might have been called a dog-in-the-manger attitude.

Rosemary made no such mistake. It was no sudden fondness for her, she thought, that caused her spouse to cling like a barnacle to her side; and her own suspicions were borne out by his habit of pinching at her under the guise of what he fondly called “having a comfortable prose.” Since this activity most often consisted of animadversions by the baron on such subjects as the Regent—whose debts and extravagant domestic expenditures had the previous year been brought to light and denounced in parliament, where this year it had been announced that he meant to erect in Rome a monument designed by Canova in honor of exiled Stuarts, an ambition which had led Brougham to suggest that his Regent might profit from that family’s sorry example of being ousted from the throne; who was hated by the working people for a way of life that included chandeliers, in the music room of the Brighton Pavilion, costing in excess of £4,000, and dinner parties where guests chose among one hundred and sixteen dishes—Rosemary could only conclude that her husband had the wind up in regard to her debts, and meant her to be miserable. It was a conclusion further borne out by Chalmers’ predisposition to make subtly accusatory remarks, the gist of which Rosemary failed to grasp, and the delivery of which was ominous. Her husband must dislike her very much, she thought, to expend such strenuous efforts toward cutting up her peace.

Lord Chalmers had succeeded very well in that ignoble intent: Rosemary was very miserable indeed. Her health had suffered to such extent that she had resorted to daily dosages of Godbold’s Vegetable Balsam, for asthma and consumption, and Velno’s Vegetable Syrup, for all else; her rest was every night disturbed by alternate nightmares of being dragged away to debtors’ prison, of being publicly denounced by Chalmers on the floor of the divorce court. Rosemary had a horror of scandal quite commensurate with her exalted rank. She also had a horror of separation from the husband whom, despite his inhumanity, she adored; and a more immediate horror yet of finding bailiffs in the house. Since the bills that she received daily had by now reached staggering proportions, this was not an unlikely contingency.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.