of duty in
their sense of sentimental sympathy."

CHAPTER XXXIII

BROWN HOLLAND COVERS

That afternoon Rose was standing by the window in the drawing-room when
she became conscious that her gown was quite hot in the burning sun,
and, undoubtedly, its soft, grey tone would fade. She drew back and
pulled down the blinds.

It was not the first time she had put off her black, for, in the Paris
heat, it had become intolerable, and she had certainly enjoyed her visit
to an inexpensive but excellent dressmaker, who had produced this grey
gown with all its determined simplicity.

Rose looked round at the drawing-room now. The furniture in holland
covers was stacked in the middle of the room; the pictures were wrapped
in brown paper with large and rather unnecessary white labels printed
with "Glass" in red letters. The fire-irons were dressed in something
that looked like Jaeger and the tassels of the blinds hung in yellow
cambric bags. Rose smiled a little as she recalled how strange and
strong an impression a room in such a state had made on her in her
childhood. The drawing-room in her London home had seemed incomparably
more attractive then than at any other time. Lady Charlton had once
brought Rose up to see a dentist on a bright, autumn day. She had not
been much hurt, but it was a great comfort when the visit was over. She
and her mother had dinner on two large mutton chops, and some apricot
tartlets from a pastry-cook, things ordered by Lady Charlton with a view
to giving as little trouble as possible to two able-bodied women who
were living on board wages, and both of whom were, in private life,
excellent cooks. Lady Charlton was anxious, too, not to give trouble by
sending messages, having quite forgotten that there was also a boy who
lived in the house. So, after lunch, she had gone out to find a cab for
herself, and had left Rose to rest with a book on the big morocco sofa
in the dining-room.

Rose had found her way to the drawing-room, and she could see now the
half-open shutter and the rich light of the autumn sun turning all the
dust of the air to gold in one big shaft of light. The child had never
seen the house when the family was away before, and with awestruck,
mysterious joy, she had lifted corners of covers and peered under chairs
and recognised legs of tables and footstools. Then she had stood up and
taken a comprehensive view of the whole of this world of mountains and
valleys, precipices a