An American girl in London . hMrs. Bangley Coffin rejoined, in parenthesis, I should hopenot—* but Im glad Lady Torquilin did not advise me to getan Ascot frock, though yours are very pretty. I feel that Icouldnt have sustained one—I havent the personality ! Andindeed this was quite true. It occurred to me often againthrough the day; I could not have gone about inside an Ascotfrock without feeling to some extent the helpless and meaning-less victim of it. The Bangley Coffin girls thought this supremenonsense, and declared that I could carry anything off, and Mrs. Bangley Coffin said, with pret
An American girl in London . hMrs. Bangley Coffin rejoined, in parenthesis, I should hopenot—* but Im glad Lady Torquilin did not advise me to getan Ascot frock, though yours are very pretty. I feel that Icouldnt have sustained one—I havent the personality ! Andindeed this was quite true. It occurred to me often againthrough the day; I could not have gone about inside an Ascotfrock without feeling to some extent the helpless and meaning-less victim of it. The Bangley Coffin girls thought this supremenonsense, and declared that I could carry anything off, and Mrs. Bangley Coffin said, with pretended se-verity, that it wasnot a question offeeling but of look-ing ; but they unitedin consoling me sosuccessfully that Iat last believed my-self dressed to per-fection for Ascot—if I had only wornsomething else tothe park the Sun-day before! The husbandand father of theBangley Coffins wasa short, square-shouldered gentleman with bushy eyebrows, a large mous-tache, plaid trousers, and a grey tail-coat that was a very. MR. BANGLEY COFFIN. AN AMERICAN GIRL IN LONDON 225 tight fit round the waist. He had an expression of deepsagacity, and he took from an inner pocket, and fondled nowand then, a case containing six very large brown cigars. Hislook of peculiar anticipative intelligence, combined with thecigars, gave me the idea that we should not be overburdenedwith Mr. Bangley Coffins society during the day—which provedto be a correct one. It did not seem to me, in spire of what Lady Torquilin hadsaid, that it was at all unpopular to go to Ascot by rail. Trainswere leaving the station every four or five minutes, all full ofpeople who preferred that way of going; and our own car,which was what, I believe, you call a saloon carriage, hadhardly an empty seat. They looked nice respectable people,too. nearly all in Ascot frocks, though not perhaps particuarlyinteresting. What surprised me in connection with the ridewas the length of it; it was not a ride, as I had somehowexpec
Size: 1416px × 1766px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookauthorcoteseverardmrs186119, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890
