FROM MISS EVELYN VANE, IN PARIS, TO THE LADY AUGUSTA FLEMING, AT
BRIGHTON.
Paris, September 30th.
Dear Lady Augusta--I am afraid I shall not be able to come to you on
January 7th, as you kindly proposed at Homburg. I am so very, very
sorry; it is a great disappointment to me. But I have just heard that it
has been settled that mamma and the children are coming abroad for a part
of the winter, and mamma wishes me to go with them to Hyeres, where
Georgina has been ordered for her lungs. She has not been at all well
these three months, and now that the damp weather has begun she is very
poorly indeed; so that last week papa decided to have a consultation, and
he and mamma went with her up to town and saw some three or four doctors.
They all of them ordered the south of France, but they didn't agree about
the place; so that mamma herself decided for Hyeres, because it is the
most economical. I believe it is very dull, but I hope it will do
Georgina good. I am afraid, however, that nothing will do her good until
she consents to take more care of herself; I am afraid she is very wild
and wilful, and mamma tells me that all this month it has taken papa's
positive orders to make her stop in-doors. She is very cross (mamma
writes me) about coming abroad, and doesn't seem at all to mind the
expense that papa has been put to--talks very ill-naturedly about losing
the hunting, etc. She expected to begin to hunt in December, and wants
to know whether anybody keeps hounds at Hyeres. Fancy a girl wanting to
follow the hounds when her lungs are so bad! But I daresay that when she
gets there she will he glad enough to keep quiet, as they say that the
heat is intense. It may cure Georgina, but I am sure it will make the
rest of us very ill.
Mamma, however, is only going to bring Mary and Gus and Fred and Adelaide
abroad with her; the others will remain at Kingscote until February
(about the 3d), when they will go to Eastbourne for a month with Miss
Turnover, the new governess, who has turned out such a very nice person.
She is going to take Miss Travers, who has been with us so long, but who
is only qualified for the younger children, to Hyeres, and I believe some
of the Kingscote servants. She has perfect confidence in Miss T.; it is
only a pity she has such an odd name. Mamma thought of asking her if she
would mind taking another when she came; but papa thought she might
object. Lady Battledown makes all her governesses take the same name;
she gives 5 pounds more a year for the purpose. I forget what it is she
calls them; I think it's Johnson (which to me always suggests a lady's
maid). Governesses shouldn't have too pretty a name; they shouldn't have
a nicer name than the family.
I suppose you heard from the Desmonds that I did not go back to England
with them. When it began to be talked about that Georgina should be
taken abroad, mamma wrote to me that I had better stop in Paris for a
month with Harold, so that she could pick me up on their way to Hyeres.
It saves the expense of my journey to Kingscote and back, and gives me
the opportunity to "finish" a little in French.
You know Harold came here six weeks ago, to get up his French for those
dreadful examinations that he has to pass so soon. He came to live with
some French people that take in young men (and others) for this purpose;
it's a kind of coaching place, only kept by women. Mamma had heard it
was very nice; so she wrote to me that I was to come and stop here with
Harold. The Desmonds brought me and made the arrangement, or the
bargain, or whatever you call it. Poor Harold was naturally not at all
pleased; but he has been very kind, and has treated me like an angel. He
is getting on beautifully with his French; for though I don't think the
place is so good as papa supposed, yet Harold is so immensely clever that
he can scarcely help learning. I am afraid I learn much less, but,
fortunately, I have not to pass an examination--except if mamma takes it
into her head to examine me. But she will have so much to think of with
Georgina that I hope this won't occur to her. If it does, I shall be, as
Harold says, in a dreadful funk.
This is not such a nice place for a girl as for a young man, and the
Desmonds thought it _exceedingly odd_ that mamma should wish me to come
here. As Mrs. Desmond said, it is because she is so very unconventional.
But you know Paris is so very amusing, and if only Harold remains good-
natured about it, I shall be content to wait for the caravan (that's what
he calls mamma and the children). The person who keeps the
establishment, or whatever they call it, is rather odd, and _exceedingly
foreign_; but she is wonderfully civil, and is perpetually sending to my
door to see if I want anything. The servants are not at all like English
servants, and come bursting in, the footman (they have only one) and the
maids alike, at all sorts of hours, in the _most sudden way_. Then when
one rings, it is half an hour before they come. All this is very
uncomfortable, and I daresay it will be worse at Hyeres. There, however,
fortunately, we shall have our own people.
There are some very odd Americans here, who keep throwing Harold into
fits of laughter. One is a dreadful little man who is always sitting
over the fire, and talking about the colour of the sky. I don't believe
he ever saw the sky except through the window--pane. The other day he
took hold of my frock (that green one you thought so nice at Homburg) and
told me that it reminded him of the texture of the Devonshire turf. And
then he talked for half an hour about the Devonshire turf; which I
thought such a very extraordinary subject. Harold says he is mad. It is
very strange to be living in this way with people one doesn't know. I
mean that one doesn't know as one knows them in England.
The other Americans (beside the madman) are two girls, about my own age,
one of whom is rather nice. She has a mother; but the mother is always
sitting in her bedroom, which seems so very odd. I should like mamma to
ask them to Kingscote, but I am afraid mamma wouldn't like the mother,
who is rather vulgar. The other girl is rather vulgar too, and is
travelling about quite alone. I think she is a kind of schoolmistress;
but the other girl (I mean the nicer one, with the mother) tells me she
is more respectable than she seems. She has, however, the most
extraordinary opinions--wishes to do away with the aristocracy, thinks it
wrong that Arthur should have Kingscote when papa dies, etc. I don't see
what it signifies to her that poor Arthur should come into the property,
which will be so delightful--except for papa dying. But Harold says she
is mad. He chaffs her tremendously about her radicalism, and he is so
immensely clever that she can't answer him, though she is rather clever
too.
There is also a Frenchman, a nephew, or cousin, or something, of the
person of the house, who is extremely nasty; and a German professor, or
doctor, who eats with his knife and is a great bore. I am so very sorry
about giving up my visit. I am afraid you will never ask me again.