Page:What Maisie Knew (Chicago & New York, Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1897).djvu/155

Rh gloves for refreshment, subsequently described herself as most exposed to the blows that her ladyship had achieved such ingenuity in dealing. She again and again repeated that she would not so much have minded having her "attainments" held up to scorn and her knowledge of every subject denied if she were not habitually denounced to her face as the basest of her sex. There was by this time no pretence on the part of any one of denying it to be fortunate that her ladyship habitually left London every Saturday and was more and more disposed to a return late in the week. It was almost equally public that she regarded as a preposterous "pose" and indeed as a direct insult to herself her husband's attitude of staying behind to look after a child for whom the most elaborate provision had been made. If there was a type Ida despised, Sir Claude communicated to Maisie, it was the man who pottered about town of a Sunday; and he also mentioned how often she had declared to him that if he had a grain of spirit he would be ashamed to accept a menial position about Mr. Farange's daughter. It was her ladyship's contention that he was in craven fear of his predecessor—otherwise