Altogether I did not find a moment of my sixteen hours
of working life each day any too long, and opened my eyes on each
morning's light as if it were a fresh creation.
Then, in addition to all these, there were solemn, stately tea drinkings
among the upper ten of Cavendish society, but usually I found them a
task--the music was poor, the conversation almost wholly confined to
local affairs, and the only refection of a first-class nature was the
food provided. Cavendish ladies were notable housewives, and could
converse eloquently on pickling, preserving, baking and the many details
of domestic economy, while as regarded the fashions, I verily believe
they could have enlightened Worth himself on some important particulars.
I used to feel sadly out of place, and sat very often silent and
constrained, thinking of my dearer, and more satisfying companionships of
books, and sea, and flowers, and the fair face of nature generally, and
wondering if I could ever get, like them, absorbed in such humble things,
getting for instance my pickles nicely greened, and of a proper degree of
crispness, and my preserves, and jellies prepared with equal perfection
for diseased and fastidious palates. "Why can't they talk of their minds,
and the food these must relish, and assimilate, instead of all the time
being devoted to the body; how it must be fed and clothed?" I asked, with
perhaps too evident contempt, of Mrs. Flaxman, one evening as we drove
home under the midnight stars, after one of these entertainments.
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