Sentimental

Extract

Mrs. Seemsby-Gore liked, one to have a title, so when she went to the Pyrenees she made up her mind to look up Miss Fairleigh—the Honourable Miss Fairleigh, she would remind you, Lord Fielden’s daughter. If you said ‘Ah!’ vaguely, because you didn’t know Miss Fairleigh and had never set eyes on Fielden, she was tempted to write you down an outsider.

Miss Fairleigh—‘Dubbin’ to her intimates, though Mrs. Seemsby-Gore didn’t know that—was staying in Lourdes while she put in a month of service at the Piscines. Consequently she wasn’t at home when Mrs. Seemsby-Gore called. However, she returned the call the following evening just before dinner, explained the situation and said she would be free to go for an expedition into the mountains two days later. There would be no big pilgrimage in, she said, so she wouldn’t be missed at the Piscines.

Miss Fairleigh’s talk of Piscines and Pilgrimages bewildered the other lady, who wasn’t a Catholic and thought that Catholics, with rare exceptions such as Miss Fairleigh, weren’t good form.

‘Do I “see” Lourdes?’ she asked doubtfully. One saw a Duomo or a Gallery if there was one. She wasn’t sure about Lourdes.

Miss Fairleigh’s eyes twinkled a little.

‘I think one should,’ she said. ‘I’ll lend you a book. I could drop it in as I pass in the morning. You could glance through it while you breakfast and then wander about by yourself. No one’ll say anything to you. Anybody can go anywhere.’

Mrs. Seemsby-Gore faintly liked the idea.