Trotter, a
sanctimonious widow, with three superhuman children, who never had so much
as a spot on their pinafores, and were far in advance of the young Binkses
in Kings and Chronicles; indeed the youngest Trotter had been familiar with
all the works of Hezekiah before the eldest Binks had grasped the abstract
idea of Saul.
For Clarissa the change to Arden Court was a pleasant one. That incessant
succession of London gaieties had wearied her beyond measure. Here, for a
little time before her visitors began to arrive, she lived her own life,
dreaming away a morning over a sketch-book, or reading some newly-published
volume in a favourite thicket in the park. There was a good deal of time,
of course, that she was obliged to devote to her husband, walking or
driving or riding with him, in rather a ceremonial manner, almost as she
might have done had she belonged to that charmed circle whose smallest walk
or drive is recorded by obsequious chroniclers in every journal in the
united kingdom. Then came six brilliant weeks in August and September,
when Arden Court was filled with visitors, and Clarissa began to feel how
onerous are the duties of a chatelaine. She had not Lady Laura Armstrong's
delight in managing a great house. She was sincerely anxious that her
guests might be pleased, but somewhat over-burdened by the responsibility
of pleasing them. It was only after some experience that she found there
was very little to be done, after all.
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