Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/144

132 at a loss what to do without them. Reading she regarded as a duty instead of a pleasure. But with the class instincts of a well born English girl, she conceived it to be her duty to say she liked the country at all times, and so protested in her pretty, well-modulated voice. Sir Archy and Farebrother were temporary resources, but no more. As for Sir Archy, she regarded him as much more unattainable than he fancied himself to be. It would be too much good luck to expect for her to return to England as Lady Corbin of Fox Court, and so she dismissed the dazzling vision with a sigh, and made up her mind to fly no higher than Mr. Romaine. Letty wondered how the domestic machinery ran at Shrewsbury, with black servants picked up here and there in the country—for the Shrewsbury negroes, having no personal ties to the place, had scattered speedily after the war. Ethel soon enlightened her.

"Turner"—that was their maid—"is really excessively frightened at the blacks. They grin at her so diabolically, and she can't get rid of the impression that all blacks are cannibals, and as for Dodson and Bridge"—the two valets—"they do nothing but complain to