Page:The Princess Casamassima (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1886), Volume 1.djvu/251

 oh, there are all kinds of things,' the young woman went on, looking round at him an instant, shyly but excitedly. 'I don't like society; and neither would you if you were to see the kind there is in London—at least in some parts,' Lady Aurora added, considerately. 'I daresay you wouldn't believe all the humbuggery and the tiresomeness that one has to go through. But I've got out of it; I do as I like, though it has been rather a struggle. I have my liberty, and that is the greatest blessing in life, except the reputation of being queer, and even a little mad, which is a greater advantage still. I'm a little mad, you know; you needn't be surprised if you hear it. That's because I stop in town when they go into the country; all the autumn, all the winter, when there's no one here (except three or four millions), and the rain drips, drips, drips, from the trees in the big, dull park, where my people live. I daresay I oughtn't to say such things to you, but, as I tell you, I'm a little mad, and I might as well keep up my character. When one is one of eight daughters, and there's very little money (for any of us, at least), and there's nothing to do but to go out with three or four others in a mackintosh, one can easily go off one's head. Of course there's the village, and it's not at all a nice one, and there are the people to look after, and heaven knows they're in want of it; but one must work with the vicarage, and at the vicarage there are four more daughters, all old maids, and it's dreary, and it's dreadful, and one has too much of it, and they don't understand what one thinks or feels, or a single word one says to them! Besides they are stupid, I admit—the country poor; they are very, very dense. I like Camberwell better,' said Lady Aurora, smiling and taking breath, at the end of her