At home, abroad, Lady Kirkbank was never
without her court; but the court was entirely masculine. In those days
the fair Georgie did not scruple to say that she hated women, and that
girls were her particular abomination. But as the years rolled on Lady
Kirkbank began to find it very difficult to muster her little court, to
keep her train in attendance upon her. 'The birds were wild,' Sir George
said. Her young adorers found their official duties more oppressive than
hitherto; her elderly swains had threatenings of gout or rheumatism
which prevented their flocking round her as of old at race meeting or
polo match. They were loyal enough in keeping their engagements at the
dinner table, for Lady Kirkbank's cook was one of the best in London;
and the invited guests were rarely missing at the little suppers after
opera or play: but Georgia's box was no longer crowded with men who
dropped in between the acts to see what she thought of the singer or the
piece, and her swains were no longer contented to sit behind her chair
all the evening, seeing an empty corner of the stage across Georgia's
ivory shoulder, and hearing the voices of invisible actors in the brief
pauses of Georgie's subdued babble.
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