The Price of Love

By: Bennett, Arnold

In the evening dimness of old Mrs. Maldon's sitting-room stood the youthful virgin, Rachel Louisa Fleckring. The prominent fact about her appearance was that shewore an apron. Not one of those white, waist-tied aprons, with or without bibs, worn proudly, uncompromisingly, by a previous generation of unaspiringhousewives and housegirls! But an immense blue pinafore-apron, covering thewhole front of the figure except the head, hands, and toes. Its virtues were that itfully protected the most fragile frock against all the perils of the kitchen; and that itcould be slipped on or off in one second, without any manipulation of tapes, pins, or buttons and buttonholes-for it had no fastenings of any sort and merely yawnedbehind. In one second the drudge could be transformed into the elegant infanta ofboudoirs, and vice versa. To suit the coquetry of the age the pinafore was enrichedwith certain flouncings, which, however, only intensified its unshapen ugliness.On a plain, middle-aged woman such a pinafore would have been intolerable to thesensitive eye. But on Rachel it simply had a piquant and perverse air, because shewas young, with the incomparable, the unique charm of comely adolescence; itsimply excited the imagination to conceive the exquisite treasures of contour andtint and texture which it veiled. Do not infer that Rachel was a coquette. Althoughcomely, she was homely-a "downright" girl, scorning and hating all manner ofpretentiousness. She had a fine best dress, and when she put it on everybody knewthat it was her best; a stranger would have known. Whereas of a coquette none buther intimate companions can say whether she is wearing best or second-best on agiven high occasion. Rachel used the pinafore-apron only with her best dress, andher reason for doing so was the sound, sensible reason that it was the usual andproper thing to

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B092X8CV3Y
• ISBN13: 9798740168265
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 344 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 8.0" x 10.0"