Golden Mediocrity

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. It was but a twenty minutes' drive from M. Mole's house to the one which Mrs. Pearce was to occupy, and which, being detached from the town, possessed a name of its own and was called La Saulaie, on account of a fine group of willows whose unusual height rendered them visible over the top of the roof...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III. It was but a twenty minutes' drive from M. Mole's house to the one which Mrs. Pearce was to occupy, and which, being detached from the town, possessed a name of its own and was called La Saulaie, on account of a fine group of willows whose unusual height rendered them visible over the top of the roof at a considerable distance; their remarkable growth was due to a stream which made a little pool at their roots before it glided away in a narrow ribbon around part of the garden. Olive was delighted to think that their abode would not be distinguished from the others by a mere number; and then the name La Saulaie sounds so poetical she exclaimed. Margot, the servant-girl engaged by Heleue for Mrs. Pearce, had prepared some cakes and white wine in the petit salon for her unknown mistress's arrival, and she hastened to get some deliciously cool water, with the remark that Ces messieurs et ces dames devaient avoir bien soif par cette cha- leur. Mrs. Pearce hardly knew what to say toher, but she was pleased by her neat appearance and look of healthy cheerfulness. La Saulaie was rather a large house for its present tenants, and very well furnished. It had been built by a rich gentleman of Champignol for his own use, and not with the intention of letting it. He had now been dead two years, and his widow had gone to live in Paris during the time of her children's education. She had no wish to let La Saulaie, where she intended to come back some time; but as M. Mole was a very intimate friend of hers, and seemed desirous of securing a comfortable habitation for his son's acquaintances, she graciously consented to the proposed arrangement, by which the English tenants had the use of everything in the house, down to plate and linen. The gardener left in charge of t...