Prev | Current Page 330 | Next

Trollope, Anthony, 1815-1882

"The Eustace Diamonds"

As she grew older, however, she quickly became wiser, and
was aware that in learning one passage of a poem it is expedient to select
one in the middle or at the end. The world is so cruelly observant
nowadays that even men and women who have not themselves read their "Queen
Mab" will know from what part of the poem a morsel is extracted, and will
not give you credit for a page beyond that from which your passage comes.
After lunch Lizzie invited Miss Macnulty to sit at the open window of the
drawing-room and look out upon the "glittering waves." In giving Miss
Macnulty her due we must acknowledge that, though she owned no actual
cleverness herself, had no cultivated tastes, read but little, and that
little of a colourless kind, and thought nothing of her hours but that she
might get rid of them and live, yet she had a certain power of insight,
and could see a thing. Lizzie Eustace was utterly powerless to impose upon
her. Such as Lizzie was, Miss Macnulty was willing to put up with her and
accept her bread. The people whom she had known had been either worthless
--as had been her own father, or cruel--like Lady Linlithgow, or false--as
was Lady Eustace.


Pages:
318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342