Good Lady Ducayne
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Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835–1915) was an English novelist and actress during the Victorian era. Although raised by a single mother, Braddon was educated at private institutions where she honed her creative skills. As a young woman, she worked as a theater actress to support herself and her family. When interest faded, she shifted to writing and produced her most notable work Lady Audley's Secret. It was one of more than 80 novels Braddon wrote of the course of an expansive career.
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Good Lady Ducayne - Mary Elizabeth Braddon
GOOD LADY DUCAYNE
CHAPTER I
Bella Rolleston had made up her mind that her only chance of earning her bread and helping her mother to an occasional crust was by going out into the great unknown world as companion to a lady. She was willing to go to any lady rich enough to pay her a salary and so eccentric as to wish for a hired companion. Five shillings told off reluctantly from one of those sovereigns which were so rare with the mother and daughter, and which melted away so quickly, five solid shillings, had been handed to a smartly-dressed lady in an office in Harbeck Street, W., in the hope that this very Superior Person would find a situation and a salary for Miss Rolleston.
The Superior Person glanced at the two half-crowns as they lay on the table where Bella’s hand had placed them, to make sure they were neither of them forms, before she wrote a description of Bella’s qualifications and requirements in a formidable-looking ledger.
‘Age?’ she asked curtly.
‘Eighteen, last July.’
‘Any accomplishments?’
‘No; I am not at all accomplished. If I were I should want to be a governess--a companion seems the lowest stage.’
‘We have some highly accomplished ladies on our books as companions, or chaperon companions.’
‘Oh, I know!’ babbled Bella, loquacious in her youthful candour. ‘But that is quite a different thing. Mother hasn’t been able to afford a piano since I was twelve years old, so I’m afraid I’ve forgotten how to play. And I have had to help mother with her needlework, so there hasn’t been much time to study.’
‘Please don’t waste time upon explaining what you can’t do, but kindly tell me anything you can do,’ said the Superior Person, crushingly, with her pen poised between delicate fingers waiting to write. ‘Can you read aloud for two or three hours at a stretch? Are you active and handy, an early riser, a good walker, sweet tempered, and obliging?’
‘I can say yes to all those questions except about the sweetness. I think I have a pretty good temper, and I should be anxious to oblige anybody who paid for my services. I should want them to feel that I was really earning my salary.’
‘The kind of ladies who come to me would not care for a talkative companion,’ said the Person, severely, having finished writing in her book. ‘My connection lies chiefly among the aristocracy, and in that class considerable deference is expected.’
‘Oh, of course,’ said Bella; ‘but it’s quite different when I’m talking to you. I want to tell you all about myself once and for ever.’
‘I am glad it is to be only once!’ said the Person, with the edges of her lips.
The Person was of uncertain age, tightly laced in a black silk gown. She had a powdery complexion and a handsome clump of somebody else’s hair on the top of her head. It may be that Bella’s girlish freshness and vivacity had an irritating effect upon nerves weakened by