The Second Mrs. Tanqueray - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
She's upstairs putting on a hat, I believe.
MRS. CORTELYON.
[_Sitting comfortably._] Ah! [_She looks round:_ DRUMMLE _and_ ELLEAN _are talking together in the hall._] We used to be very frank with each other, Aubrey. I suppose the old footing is no longer possible, eh?
AUBREY.
If so, I'm not entirely to blame, Mrs. Cortelyon.
MRS. CORTELYON.
Mrs. Cortelyon? H'm! No, I admit it. But you must make some little allowance for me, _Mr. Tanqueray_. Your first wife and I, as girls, were like two cherries on one stalk, and then I was the confidential friend of your married life. That post, perhaps, wasn't altogether a sinecure. And now--well, when a woman gets to my age I suppose she's a stupid, prejudiced, conventional creature. However, I've got over it and--[_giving him her hand_]--I hope you'll be enormously happy and let me be a friend once more.
AUBREY.
Thank you, Alice.
MRS. CORTELYON.
That's right. I feel more cheerful than I've done for weeks. But I suppose it would serve me right if the second Mrs. Tanqueray showed me the door. Do you think she will?
AUBREY.
[_Listening._] Here is my wife. [MRS. CORTELYON _rises, and_ PAULA _enters, dressed for driving; she stops abruptly on seeing_ MRS.
CORTELYON.] Paula dear, Mrs. Cortelyon has called to see you.
[PAULA _starts, looks at_ MRS. CORTELYON _irresolutely, then after a slight pause barely touches_ MRS.
CORTELYON'S _extended hand._
PAULA.
[_Whose manner now alternates between deliberate insolence and a.s.sumed sweetness._] Mrs.----? What name, Aubrey?
AUBREY.
Mrs. Cortelyon.
PAULA.
Cortelyon? Oh, yes. Cortelyon.
MRS. CORTELYON.
[_Carefully guarding herself throughout against any expression of resentment._] Aubrey ought to have told you that Alice Cortelyon and he are very old friends.
PAULA.
Oh, very likely he has mentioned the circ.u.mstance. I have quite a wretched memory.
MRS. CORTELYON.
You know we are neighbours, Mrs. Tanqueray.
PAULA.
Neighbours? Are we really? Won't you sit down? [_They both sit._]
Neighbours! That's most interesting!
MRS. CORTELYON.
Very near neighbours. You can see my roof from your windows.
PAULA.
I fancy I _have_ observed a roof. But you have been away from home; you have only just returned.
MRS. CORTELYON.
I? What makes you think that?
PAULA.
Why, because it is two months since we came to Highercoombe, and I don't remember your having called.
MRS. CORTELYON.
Your memory is now terribly accurate. No, I've not been away from home, and it is to explain my neglect that I am here, rather unceremoniously, this morning.
PAULA.
Oh, to explain--quite so. [_With mock solicitude._] Ah, you've been very ill; I ought to have seen that before.
MRS. CORTELYON.
Ill!
PAULA.
You look dreadfully pulled down. We poor women show illness so plainly in our faces, don't we?
AUBREY.
[_Anxiously._] Paula dear, Mrs. Cortelyon is the picture of health.
MRS. CORTELYON.
[_With some asperity._] I have never _felt_ better in my life.
