Читать книгу Wintersmoon онлайн

116 страница из 136

The Duchess greeted her very kindly and then Wildherne came and led her into the long ballroom.

To Rosalind, following the happy pair, the party seemed at first sight a rather dowdy one. The room was very fine with its white walls, shining background to the family pictures and its glitter and sparkle of light, but nobody was very smartly dressed. Very few young people. No naked people at all. A great many old men with ribbons and orders. Faces stood out. The Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Of course there would be lots of clergy....

And then it came to her slowly that the whole had something of an air, something rather grand, but something unreal as though it were a pageant. No one seemed to move, voices were low, very dimly from some obscure distance stole the murmur of a band, and the eyes of the stout mild gentleman and lady in the Purefoy Gainsborough stared down at Rosalind's golden hair and slim body and naked back as though they wondered what she was doing there.

Whether it were the Gainsborough or no she was aware, for the first time for many a month, that her clothes were unlike any others in the room. She did not care, but she did hope that soon she might find a friend, someone with whom she could laugh a little, just a little, at all these quaint old people.