The Lady Herbert's Gentlewomen

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: 26 CHAPTER III. THE PAY-DAY?THE DINNER-DAY?AND A PROMISE. Four times in each year Lady Herbert's gentlewomen receive their stipends. It is at those dates subservient to the old style, so that they fall a little later than the ordinary quarter-days. Nevertheless, pay-day is a great day at Shirlot. Needy...
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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: 26 CHAPTER III. THE PAY-DAY?THE DINNER-DAY?AND A PROMISE. Four times in each year Lady Herbert's gentlewomen receive their stipends. It is at those dates subservient to the old style, so that they fall a little later than the ordinary quarter-days. Nevertheless, pay-day is a great day at Shirlot. Needy gentlewomen?who forestal their incomes?reckon of it eagerly; and those who are miserly reckon of it in a like manner, for it adds to the glittering hoards they so fondly prize. Creditors know the day accurately; though the majority of these good old gentlewomen neither have debt nor receive bill, sorrow has taught them her wise and austere lessons. The pay-days of Christmas and Midsummer are the most important; for the majority of payments are then greatly larger in amount?and a dinner follows at the distance of a day or two. On theseoccasions Lady Herbert's gentlewomen meet, except such as are incapacitated by infirmity or illness. Their wardrobes give forth their choicest treasures, and smiles and courtesies are as prevalent as flowers in season. This is a cold January day, when Tibb and her little handmaids set the great parlour in holiday order. A carpet is laid down, a large fire glows in the grate, and the quaint-shaped tables and chairs reflect its brightness a hundred-fold. Far away?in the wing of the left cloister, and up a small staircase similar to that of Miss Thorne, in the wing opposite?a double-bedded chamber, never used but on these occasions, is prepared; for the agent and his secretary are expected, and here they sleep. As evening closes in, the dog-cart drives up to the lodge; and two gentlemen, alighting, leave the vehicle to the care of their man-servant, and adjourn to the hall. Here, after tea has been served Mrs. Hutchinson?as is her cus...