Part 25 (2/2)
One night, after dinner, I was sitting in a circle of fashi+onable men and women--none of them particularly intimate with me--when Lady Londonderry opened the talk about books Hardly knowing her, I entered with an innocent zest into the conversation I was taken in by her ht sheout upon style, I said there was a good deal of rubbish written about it, but it was essential that people should write siaht I should know the author froe read out aloud from one of their books I said that sonise--such as Meredith, Carlyle, De Quincey or Browning--but that when it came to others--men like Scott or Froude, for instance--I should not be so sure ofthe finest style in the world, ought surely to be easily recognised! I was quite ready to believe that some of the company had made a complete study of Froude's style, but I had not I said that I could not be sure, because his writing was too smooth and perfect, and that, when I read hi arrow-root This shocked them profoundly and I added that, unless I were to stu equally fascinating, I should not even be sure of recognising Scott's style This scandalised the company Lady Londonderry then askedI told her I did not, although I liked some of his books She seeer onwith a lofty shake of her head, said in a challenging manner:
”I should be curious to know, Miss Tennant, what you have read by Sy taken on, I replied rather chillily:
”Oh, the usual sort of thing!”
Lady Londonderry, visibly irritated and with the confident air of one who has a little surprise in store for the company, said:
”Have you by any chance looked at Essays, Suggestive and Speculative?”
MARGOT: ”Yes, I've read them all”
LADY LONDONDERRY: ”Really! Do you not approve of them?”
MARGOT: ”Approve? I don't knohat youbeautifulthe style, I mean?”
MARGOT: ”I think they are all very bad, but then I don't admire Symonds' style”
LADY LONDONDERRY: ”I am afraid you have not read the book”
This annoyed me; I saw the coht it unnecessarily rude and more than foolish
I looked at her calmly and said:
”I am afraid, Lady Londonderry, you have not read the preface The book is dedicated toat Davos at the tih to ask me to read one of thein This I did, but he was offended by so that I told hiain, at which he forgave me and dedicated the book to me”
After this flutter I was not taken on by fashi+onable ladies about books
Lady Londonderry never belonged to the Souls, but her antagonist, Lady de Grey, was one of its chief ornareat beauty, with perfect manners and a moderate sense of duty She was the last word in refine septic in her nature and I heard her say one day that the sound of the cuckoo h she was not lazy and seldom idle, she never developed her intellectual powers or sustained herself by reading or study of any kind She had not the s in her entertain her over for dinner--she becaitation, only excusable if it had been soins--an exceptionally clever and devoted friend ofrevived the opera, Bohemian society became her hobby; but a tenor in the country or a dancer on the lawn are not really wanted; and, although she spent endless time at Covent Garden and achieved considerable success, restlessness devoured her While receiving the adoration of a small but influential circle, she appeared toto no purpose and, in spite of an experience which queens and actresses, professionals and aht well have envied, she remained embarrassed by herself, fluid, brilliant and uneasy The personal nobility hich she worked her hospital in the Great War years brought her peace
Frances Horner [Footnote: Lady Horner, of Mells, Frome] was more like a sister to me than any one outside my own family I met her when she was Miss Graham and I was fourteen She was a leader in as called the high art Williairls who ever had a salon in London
I was deeply impressed by her appearance, it was the fashi+on of the day to wear the autumn desert in your hair and ”soft shades”
of Liberty velveteen; but it was neither the unusualness of her clothes nor the sight of Burne-Jones at her feet and Ruskin at her elbow that struck me most, but what Charty's little boy, Tohost eyes” and the nobility of her countenance
There may be women as well endoith heart, head, temper and temperament as Frances Horner, but I have only met a few: Lady de Vesci (whose niece, Cynthia, married our poet-son, Herbert), Lady Betty Balfour[Footnote: Sister of the Earl of Lytton and wife of Mr Gerald Balfour] and hter Elizabeth With randeur of character is surprisingly lacking in them; but Lady Horner comprises all that is best in uished of the Souls and was as wise as she was just, truthful, tactful, and generous She reat influence, as indeed she was always a great pleasure, but she was both physically andwith life and spent and wasted more time than was justifiable on plans which could have been done by any good servant It would not haveone part of the fa another part of it fro a five or a five-to-five train--which could or could not be stopped--if one could have been quite sure that Mary Wemyss needed her friend so iven for an inti blinds people to a true sense of proportion and h time for any of us She is the only woman I know or have ever knoithout smallness or touchiness of any kind
Her juste enius; and I was--and still am--more interested in her moral, social and intellectual opinions than in o I wrote this in enerally a day behind the fair and will only hear ofto clinch her over a collar for her chow”
One of the less prominent of the Souls was my friend, Lionel Tennyson[Footnote: Brother of the present Lord Tennyson] He was the second son of the poet and was an official in the India Office He had an untidy appearance, a black beard and no s in a lusty voice and wrote good verses