Soap Info

Next Soap (70) | Previous Soap (68)

from Asia Minor?
Judith laughedI am sure not naturally.
Is that all you wanted to say to me?
She withdrew her hand, and tidied her hair in the mirror of the
overmantel.
I think she is a most uninteresting young woman. I am
disappointed. I had anticipated something original. I had
looked forward to some amusement. But, really, my dear Marcus,
she is _bete a pleurer_weepingly stupid.
She certainly can weep, said I.
Oh, can she? said Judith, as if the announcement threw some
light on Carlotta's character. And when she cries, I suppose
you, like a man, give in and let her have her own way? And
Judith laughed again.
My dear Judith, said I; you have no idea of the wholesome
discipline at Lingfield Terrace.
Suddenly with one of her disconcerting changes of front, she
turned and caught me by the coatlappels.
Marcus dear, I have been so lonely this week. When are you
coming to see me?
We'll have a whole day out on Sunday, said I.
As I walked down the stairs with Carlotta, I reflected that
Judith had not accounted for the red spots.
I like her, said Carlotta. She is a nice old lady.
Old lady! What on earth do you mean? I was indeed startled.
She is a young woman.
Pouf! cried Carlotta. She is forty.
She is no such thing, I cried. She is years younger than I.
She would not tell me.
You asked her age?
Oh, yees, said Carlotta. I was very polite. I first asked
if she was married. She said yes. Then I asked how her husband
was. She said she didn't know. That was funny. Why does she not
know, Seer Marcous?
Never mind, said I, go on telling me how polite you were.
I asked how many children she had. She said she had none. I
said it was a pity. And then I said, 'I am eighteen years old
and I want to marry quite soon and have children. How old are
you?' And she would not tell me. I said, 'You must be the same
age as my mamma, if she were alive.' I said other things, about
her husband, which I forget. Oh, I was very polite.
She smiled up at me in quest of approbation. I checked a
horrified rebuke when I reflected that, according to the
etiquette of the harem, she had been very polite. But my poor
Judith! Every artless question had been a knife thrust in a
sensitive spot. Her husband: the handsome blackguard who had
lured her into the divorce court, married her, and after two
unhappy years had left her broken; children: they would have kept

Next Soap (70) | Previous Soap (68)

Soap Index