Page:Gissing - The Emancipated, vol. I, 1890.djvu/77

Rh Anglicized matron, perfectly familiar with all the requirements, great and little, of her guests, and, when minutiae were once settled, capable of meeting ladies and gentlemen on terms of equality in her drawing-room or at her table, where she always presided. Indeed, there was much true refinement in Madame Glück. You had not been long in her house before she found an opportunity of letting you know that she prided herself on connection with the family of the great musician, and, were you a musician yourself, she would make things very pleasant for you indeed: under her roof there was nearly always some one who played or sang well. It was her desire that all who sat at her dinner-table—the English people, at all event—should be in evening-dress. She herself had no little art in adorning herself so as to appear, what she was, a lady, and yet not to conflict with the ladies whose presence honoured her.

In the drawing-room, a few days after the arrival of Mrs. Lessingham and her