Читать книгу Mignonette - Bowen Marjorie - Страница 17

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Aimée expressed admiration and gratitude for the Chinese room, fingering the furniture and hangings, and exclaiming at their merits. When she took off her green hat, her heavy hair fell out of the knotted net, in full curls on her shoulders.

She remarked on the austerity of her life in Paris. She had been into no society at all—how was it possible? A neighbor or two, her music master, and her drawing master—that was all.

"And the English governess?" asked Barbara.

"That was my mother. She had been an English governess, as we say, that is, a governess for English families. In that way Mr. Lawne met her—he was engaging a governess for you."

"Oh!" Barbara was startled. "I never had a French governess."

"No, I suppose not." Aimée looked at herself in the mirror with the crimson lacquer frame. "My mother was always comme il faut and she is of a good family, also. You can see that in me."

"Yes. I never thought you would look common."

"I might have been. You don't know much of the world, do you?"

"And you seem to know a great deal."

"Alas, no. I have only my wits, and my mother, and one or two intelligent acquaintances she had. Also, I have read a great deal. But I am ignorant, of course. I hope that here in England, I know something, I mean, learn."

"There is nothing here," said Barbara lamely. "It has always been very quiet at Stone Hall, with so much sickness, and I am the only surviving child."

"Except for me," smiled Aimée. "But now we will forget that. I am merely the daughter of a family friend, Madame Falconet."

"It would be better," agreed Barbara. "There is nothing to say that does not seem like a judgment."

What Aimée had just told her had made the story even more incredible than it had been before. The thought of her father interviewing a governess, one of the women whose very livelihood depended on their quiet respectability, and falling in love with her, seemed grotesque.

Aimée seemed to sense her perplexity, for she said, "Some day I shall tell you all I know."