Five years of marriage had somewhat changed Barbara; she was thinner,
and freckled rather than rosy, and she wore her thick dark hair in a
fashion Julia did not very much admire. Also she seemed to care less for
dress than she once had done, even though what she wore was always the
handsomest of its kind. But she was an eagerly admiring and most devoted
wife, calmly assuming that the bronzed and silent "Francis" could do no
wrong, and Julia thought she had never seen a more charming and
conscientious mother. Barbara, whose husband's uncle was a lord, who had
been presented at the English court, and whose mail was peppered with
coats-of-arms, nursed her infant proudly and publicly, and was heard to
mention to old friends--not always women either--social events that had
occurred "just before Geordie came" or "when I was expecting Arthur."
Her rather thin face would brighten to its old beauty when Geordie and
Arthur, stamping in, bare kneed and glowing, recounted to her the joys
of Sausalito, and in evening dress she was quite magnificent, and
somehow seemed more at ease than American women ever do.
Pages:
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553