Upon the whole, however, to be called a fool was less objectionable
to Miss Macnulty than were demands for sympathy which she did not know how
to give.
Those first ten days of August went very slowly with Lady Eustace. "Queen
Mab" got itself poked away, and was heard of no more. But there were other
books. A huge box full of novels had come down, and Miss Macnulty was a
great devourer of novels. If Lady Eustace would talk to her about the
sorrows of the poorest heroine that ever saw her lover murdered before her
eyes, and then come to life again with ten thousand pounds a year, for a
period of three weeks--or till another heroine, who had herself been
murdered, obliterated the former horrors from her plastic mind--Miss
Macnulty could discuss the catastrophe with the keenest interest. And
Lizzie, finding herself to be, as she told herself, unstrung, fell also
into novel-reading. She had intended during this vacant time to master the
"Faery Queen"; but the "Faery Queen" fared even worse than "Queen Mab";
and the studies of Portray Castle were confined to novels. For poor
Macnulty, if she could only be left alone, this was well enough.
Pages:
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347