A True Class Act

“He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact.”

The Wild Heart 1983

No sooner was his father’s funeral over, than Mrs. John Dashwood, without sending any notice of her intention to her mother-in-law, arrived with her child and their attendants. No one could dispute her right to come; the house was her husband’s from the moment of his father’s decease; but the indelicacy of her conduct was so much the greater, and to a woman in Mrs. Dashwood’s situation, with only common feelings, must have been highly unpleasing;—but in her mind there was a sense of honor so keen, a generosity so romantic, that any offence of the kind, by whomsoever given or received, was to her a source of immoveable disgust.

Mrs. John Dashwood had never been a favourite with any of her husband’s family; but she had had no opportunity, till the present, of shewing them with how little attention to the comfort of other people she could act when occasion required it. So acutely did Mrs. Dashwood feel this ungracious behaviour, and so earnestly did she despise her daughter-in-law for it, that, on the arrival of the latter, she would have quitted the house for ever, had not the entreaty of her eldest girl induced her first to reflect on the propriety of going, and her own tender love for all her three children determined her afterwards to stay, and for their sakes avoid a breach with their brother.

Language of Flowers postcards (ca. 1909/10)

Rose: love

Clover: be mine

Sweet Pea: wish you joy

Pansy: think of me

Wild Rose: pleasure after pain

Wheat: plenty

White Heather: good luck

Snowdrop: hope

Lily: peace

Cherish Book || "Nymphe" Ryoko Yamagishi || ‘My Greek Mansion’ || 1977 「 Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia 」