The Graftons by Archibald Marshall

Author:Archibald Marshall
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781620128428
Publisher: Duke Classics

Chapter XIII - Paris

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Grafton went over to Paris to fetch Barbara, and Caroline and Young George went with him. It was decided almost at the last minute. Young George had no particular opinion of foreign parts, and was enjoying every moment of his time at home. But Jimmy, who came over on Friday to pay a formal call of congratulation to Beatrix, advised him not to be an ass. "A couple of days in Paris clears the cobwebs off a man's brain," he said. "England's the best place in the world, of course, but you're apt to get provincial if you don't run over to France occasionally. You see things from a different point of view." So Young George was persuaded. They would only be away from Saturday till Monday, and on the whole it would be rather a lark. He wanted to see Barbara too. There were lots of things to talk to her about, and he had never before come home for his holidays without finding her there to meet him. He had missed her during the first few days, more than he would have thought possible.

They arrived in Paris in the afternoon and descended at the Meurice. Leaving Caroline and her maid there, Grafton and Young George went off in a taxi-auto to collect Barbara from her 'family' which, though somewhat decayed in fortune, still inhabited its ancestral hotel in the Faubourg Saint Germain. There was a Monsieur le Comte and a Madame la Comtesse, and a daughter of about Barbara's age. There were also half a dozen young English girls whom Madame la Comtesse made a great favour of receiving, but whose parents contributed the bulk of the income necessary to keep up the ancient dignity of the name. It was the genuine French family life which these English girls, also of irreproachable ancestry—that was a sine qua non, or announced to be—were invited to share, and which Barbara said was as dull as ditchwater. They had their professors, and were taken about here and there, and they talked French. English was not permitted. Not a word was allowed to be spoken even among themselves, except as a special concession going to and from church on Sundays. As none of them were Catholics, Madame probably thought the greater sin might on these occasions include the lesser.

Barbara had altered; not in her affectionate impetuousness, for she almost overwhelmed her father and brother with the warmth of her embraces. But her hair, if not yet 'up' was no longer 'down.' She had grown taller and slimmer; she wore her pretty clothes as if she took an interest in them; and her speech and manner were the tiniest little bit affected by her three months' absence from English influences, though this she indignantly denied when Young George taxed her with putting on French frills.

"But as for French frills," she said, "there will be something to be said about that later, but not to either of you. Why didn't my

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