Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-09
THEHOUSE OBEDIENCE
BY EDWARD F. BENSON.
1906 E D

paused a moment, with her head on one
side.
"Oh, be just. Ruby" she said. Dear
Alice was always fatiguing, and / don't
know that the fact that she is Christian
Scientist now makes-her more fatiguing.
1t is true that she seems to smile with
purpose, but. If we didn't know, 1 don't
think we should see any difference. She
means to be helpful now, but she is about
as helpless as before. 1 think you are UNI
charitable. OF course nobody really can help
CO. 1 think it Is too charming Of you to
stay and superintend these stupid people.
You won't let them touch the staircase
again, will you? 1t is just what 1 meant it
to be, or SO nearly that one is content
to run no further risks. And please throw
all gardenas out of the window If they
bring any, just as you threw all the calceo-
larias out. They are what is called SO
sure somebody in Birmingham must have
invented it. 1t is like talking of a car
rage sweep or a soied handkerchief"
Lady Thurso would probably have been
very much surprised If she had been told
that she was a genius, because she had a
sort of idea that in order to be, or rather
have been, a genius, it was necessary to
live most unsuccessful life, and to die
unnoticed (untiI afterward, when it was too
late) in a garnet. But If the stock definition
of genius was at all correct, she had very
reasonable claim to the title, for her power
of taking pains was really Infinite. 1t
made no matter what she was engaged on;
whatever she did, she did with tran
scendent aim for perfection, and whether it
was the decoration of her staircase or the
speech that she had to make at the in
dustrial sale, she bestowed on it the utmost
effort of which she capable. She had
another gift also to cap this, which, though
almost as rare. is almost as remunerative:
for when she had bestowed her utmost
pains she could dismiss the subject from
her mind, and not worry any more at all
about it. Thus now, the moment that she
had LETT her door, the staircase decoration
ceased to exist in her mind, and the speech
she was to make in a quarter of an hour
from now was non-eXiStent also, since this
morning she had thought it over; written
it down, and said it aloud to herself until
she was perfectly satisfied that she knew
what she wanted to say and could say it,
This being so. she could and did devote
herself as she drove through this blue June
of London to the fascinating pursuit of
simply looking about her. She was the au-
thor, in point of fact, of a mot that had
gone all round London, to the effect that
by driving for an hour during the day, at
the right time and through the right streets,
you could, without exchanging a word with
anybody know all that had been in the
morning papers and all that would be in the
evening issues. In the course of such
drive you could see the leader of what had
been the opposition and was now the gov
eminent stepping into a hanson with an
elate but anxious face at his door in Bel
grave square. The hanson meant a sudden
emergency, and surely the goal was Buck
ingham palace and so the new prime min
lister was foreseen. Again in Gresham place
you could see the Russian ambassador STEP
ping into his motor with luggage on the
top. Clearly, then. there was some amelio-
ration in Russian affairs, since he could not
leave town If the crisis was critical as 1t
had been yesterday. The blinds We're down
where A was very ill., the blinds were still
up where B was supposed to be dying.
Therefore. A had thought worse of 1t and
died: had thought better of 1t and still
lived. Then there was a block at Hyde
Park corner, and the royal liveries flashed
by She wondered If the new prime minis
ter would get to the palace first.
For the last two years or so she and her
husband had been very little together,
though they both had the sense to avoid the
possibility of scandal in their being so much
apart, for his short and bitter summary of
their mutual relatio had been very near
the truth he bored her, and she got on
his nerves. And whatever the higher code
of ethics might have to say on the subject.