About this story
A planned Swiss tour with your cousin George, the man you once nearly married, alarms your aunt Lady Macleod and shadows a family dinner where George needles John about old attachments. John accepts the trip without pretending to like it, then asks, plainly, for a date to build your home on — and the chapter ends before you answer.
How it opens
Green paper, green curtains, and green chairs made the drawing room oppressively complete.
John VavasorThe furniture is sound, Alice, which is more than fashion usually achieves.
Your father preferred his club and left you to inhabit his economical taste alone.
Lady MacleodShut the window, my dear. I am warm enough to fear the draught.
Choose
A borrowed place in her carriage is not an invitation to her house.
I will attend when Lady Midlothian troubles herself to call here.