red.
Lady Utterword, a blonde, is very handsome, very well dressed, and so
precipitate in speech and action that the first impression (erroneous)
is one of comic silliness.

LADY UTTERWORD. Oh, is that you, Nurse? How are you? You don't look a
day older. Is nobody at home? Where is Hesione? Doesn't she expect me?
Where are the servants? Whose luggage is that on the steps? Where's
papa? Is everybody asleep? [Seeing Ellie]. Oh! I beg your pardon. I
suppose you are one of my nieces. [Approaching her with outstretched
arms]. Come and kiss your aunt, darling.

ELLIE. I'm only a visitor. It is my luggage on the steps.

NURSE GUINNESS. I'll go get you some fresh tea, ducky. [She takes up the
tray].

ELLIE. But the old gentleman said he would make some himself.

NURSE GUINNESS. Bless you! he's forgotten what he went for already. His
mind wanders from one thing to another.

LADY UTTERWORD. Papa, I suppose?

NURSE GUINNESS. Yes, Miss.

LADY UTTERWORD [vehemently]. Don't be silly, Nurse. Don't call me Miss.

NURSE GUINNESS [placidly]. No, lovey [she goes out with the tea-tray].

LADY UTTERWORD [sitting down with a flounce on the sofa]. I know what
you must feel. Oh, this house, this house! I come back to it after
twenty-three years; and it is just the same: the luggage lying on the
steps, the servants spoilt and impossible, nobody at home to receive
anybody, no regular meals, nobody ever hungry because they are always
gnawing bread and butter or munching apples, and, what is worse, the
same disorder in ideas, in talk, in feeling. When I was a child I was
used to it: I had never known anything better, though I was unhappy, and
longed all the time--oh, how I longed!--to be respectable, to be a lady,
to live as others did, not to have to think of everything for myself.
I married at nineteen to escape from it. My husband is Sir Hastings
Utterword, who has been governor of all the crown colonies in
succession. I have always been the mistress of Government House. I
have been so happy: I had forgotten that people could live like this. I
wanted to see my father, my sister, my nephews and nieces (one ought
to, you know), and I was looking forward to it. And now the state of
the house! the way I'm received! the casual impudence of that woman
Guinness, our old nurse! really Hesione might at least have been here:
some preparation might have been made for me. You must excuse my
going on in this way; but I am really very much hurt a