The talk about his sister's hair going up no doubt had caused it.
He remembered the young schoolmistress who had her meals at the
Pension, and the Armenian student who had fallen in love with, and
eventually married, her. It was the only courtship he had ever
witnessed. Marriage and courtship seemed everywhere this morning.
'I saw it all with Mlle. Perette,' he informed the party. 'It began
already by his pouring out water for her and passing the salt and
things. It _always_ begins like that. He got shawls even when she was
hot.'
He looked so wise and grave that nobody laughed, and his sisters even
seemed impressed rather. Jinny waited anxiously for more. If Mother
did make an odd grimace, it was not noticed, and anyhow was cleverly
converted into the swallowing of a yawn. There was a moment's silence.
Jimbo, proudly conscious that more was expected of him, provided it in
his solemn little voice.
'But it must be horrid,' he announced, 'to be married--always sticked
to the same woman, like that.' No sentence was complete without the
inevitable 'already' or 'like that,' translated from the language he
was more at home in. He thought in French. 'I shall never marry myself
(_me marier_) he decided, seeing his older sister's eyes upon him
wonderingly. Then, uncertain whether he had said an awfully wise or an
awfully foolish thing, he added no more.
Pages:
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435