A Question of Marriage
By Mrs George de Horne Vaizey
The laces of the white nightgown and the muslin of the frilled cushion showed out in almost startling beauty the dark mist of hair; the exquisitely flushed cheeks, dark brows, and curling lashes gave a deepened shade to the violet-blue of the eyes. The rich brunette colouring had a somewhat un-English aspect, yet there was no drop of foreign blood in the girl’s veins—she was Irish “all through, except my mother, who was Scotch,” as she was accustomed to describing her lineage.
The contour of her face was oval, and her profile showed the delicate fineness of a cameo. Happy Jean! Her beauty was no light gift to pass away with her loss of youth; she was now and must always remain beautiful. Age, sorrow, and suffering might do their worst; those who looked on would never find her the perfection of her type. If she lived to be eighty, she would be as essentially an artist’s model as she was now at twenty-two. The clock struck four.
Jean put down her book and raised her head from the cushion to listen to the sound of an approaching footstep. The door opened, and she beheld Vanna Strangeways’ white, strained face. The horrid doctor had given a depressing verdict. So much was evident at a glance, but Jean had too much tact to allow her knowledge to betray itself. “Well, my dearie, back again! I was longing for you. Sit down in that nice low chair, and let me be lady’s-maid. The streets must be a grill this afternoon, but you’ll soon cool down up here.
There, you’ll feel better without that hat. Your hair looks charming—don’t worry. It couldn’t look untidy if it tried. Now, your gloves. I shall peel them right off. It will be occupation for an idle hour to turn out the fingers. If I were a queen, I’d never wear gloves a second time. Now, those dusty little shoes. Your slippers are here already, so sit still. I’m going to undo them. I love to do it.”
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Mrs George de Horne Vaizey
Jessie Bell (1857 – 23 January 1917), later Jessie Mansergh, was an English writer born in Liverpool who wrote under her married name Mrs George de Horne Vaizey.
Biography.
De Horne Vaizey was the daughter of Scottish insurance broker David Bell and his wife, Elizabeth Morris Barton, and had six siblings: four brothers and two sisters. She married Henry Mansergh, a cotton broker, in 1883. They had a daughter, Gwyneth Alice, in 1886. She met her second husband, George de Horne Vaizey, on a Mediterranean cruise, which she won in a short story competition. Her son, named George after his father, also became a writer. As her biography at Athelstane Books notes, “She often used her own varied experiences in her books. She used situations from her early life in a large family, her first husband’s addiction and death, and her illnesses in her novels.”
De Horne Vaizey’s daughter Gwyneth, nicknamed Kit, inspired the character Kitty in her 1902 work “A Houseful of Girls”. The author mentions that Gwyneth did share lessons with a family of five sisters, who “in many ways were like the book Rendells. Christabel is as if I could make her, and they all talk Funny, emphasizing every second or third word. De Horne Vaizey was an invalid for many years before her death. The Sydney Morning Herald obituary mentions that she had been “an invalid, crippled and confined to her bed for years”.
De Horne Vaizey was quoted in Housekeeper magazine in 1909 on the differences between men and women: “I’m convinced that men would be smaller-minded still if they were in our place, so it’s not as big as it seems. It’s our life’s work to do the small things, to save the small sums, and haggle over pennies while men deal with the great affairs of life.”
Mrs George de Horne Vaizey
