Chaperon (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | Henry James | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

What can a girl to do when London society has convicted her mother of a dreadful sin and has ostracized her? If blood is thicker than water, the daughter must remain loyal to her parent surely, how far will it affect her own standing in society (and most important, of course) in the marriage market that is controlled by that society?

Excerpt:
An old lady, in a high drawing-room, had had her chair moved close to the fire, where she sat knitting and warming her knees. She was dressed in deep mourning; her face had a faded nobleness, tempered, however, by the somewhat illiberal compression assumed by her lips in obedience to something that was passing in her mind. She was far from the lamp, but though her eyes were fixed upon her active needles she was not looking at them. What she really saw was quite another train of affairs. The room was spacious and dim; the thick London fog had oozed into it even through its superior defences. It was full of dusky, massive, valuable things. The old lady sat motionless save for the regularity of her clicking needles, which seemed as personal to her and as expressive as prolonged fingers. If she was thinking something out, she was thinking it thoroughly.[...]