The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Arbiter, by Lady F. E. E. Bell

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Title: The Arbiter
A Novel

Author: Lady F. E. E. Bell

Release Date: March 10, 2008 [EBook #24794]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ARBITER ***

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THE ARBITER

A NOVEL

BY

LADY F. E. E. BELL

AUTHOR OF THE "STORY OF URSULA," "MISS TOD AND THE PROPHETS,"
"FAIRY-TALE PLAYS," ETC., ETC.

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
37 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND
1901

* * * * *

THE ARBITER

CHAPTER I

"It is a great mistake," said Miss Martin emphatically, "for any
sensible woman to show a husband she adores him."

"Even her own, Aunt Anna?" said Lady Gore, with a contented smile which
Aunt Anna felt to be ignoble.

"Of course I meant her own," she said stiffly. "I should hardly have
thought, Elinor, that after being married so many years you would have
made jokes of that sort."

"That is just it," said Lady Gore, still annoyingly pleased with
herself. "After adoring my husband for twenty-four years, it seems to me
that I am an authority on the subject."

"Well, it is a great mistake," repeated Miss Martin firmly, as she got
up, feeling that the repetition notably strengthened her position. "As I
said before, no sensible woman should do it."

Lady Gore began to feel a little annoyed. It is fatiguing to hear one's
aunt say the same thing twice. The burden of conversation is unequally
distributed if one has to think of two answers to each one remark of
one's interlocutor.

"And you are bringing up Rachel to do the same thing, you know," the old
lady went on, roused to fresh indignation at the thought of her
great-niece, and she pulled her little cloth jacket down, and generally
shook herself together. Crabbed age and jackets should not live
together. Age should be wrapped in the ample and tolerant cloak, hider
of frailties. It was not Aunt Anna's fault, however, if her garments
were uncompromising and scanty of outline. Predestination reigns nowhere
more strongly than in