The Portrait of a Lady

The Portrait of a Lady

Episode 1

Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea or not- some people of course never do- the situation is in itself delightful.Those that I have in mind in beginning to unfold this simple history offered an admirable setting to an innocent pastime.

The implements of the little feast had been disposed upon the lawn of an old English country-house, in what I should call the perfect middle of a splendid summer afternoon.Part of the afternoon had waned, but much of it was left, and what was left was of the finest and rarest quality.Real dusk would not arrive for many hours; but the flood of summer light had begun to ebb, the air had grown mellow, the shadows were long upon the smooth, dense turf.They lengthened slowly, however, and the scene expressed that sense of leisure still to come which is perhaps the chief source of one's enjoyment of such a scene at such an hour.From five o'clock to eight is on certain occasions a little eternity; but on such an occasion as this the interval could be only an eternity of pleasure.The persons concerned in it were taking their pleasure quietly, and they were not of the sex which is supposed to furnish the regular votaries of the ceremony I have mentioned.The shadows on the perfect lawn were straight and angular; they were the shadows of an old man sitting in a deep wicker-chair near the low table on which the tea had been served, and of two younger men strolling to and fro, in desultory talk, in front of him.The old man had his cup in his hand; it was an unusually large cup, of a different pattern from the rest of the set and painted in brilliant colours.He disposed of its contents with much circumspection, holding it for a long time close to his chin, with his face turned to the house.His companions had either finished their tea or were indifferent to their privilege; they smoked cigarettes as they continued to stroll.One of them, from time to time, as he passed, looked with a certain attention at the elder man, who, unconscious of observation, rested his eyes upon the rich red front of his dwelling.The house that rose beyond the lawn was a structure to repay such consideration and was the most characteristic object in the peculiarly English picture I have attempted to sketch.

It stood upon a low hill, above the river- the river being the Thames at some forty miles from London.A long gabled front of red brick, with the complexion of which time and the weather had played all sorts of pictorial tricks, only, however, to improve and refine it, presented to the lawn its patches of ivy, its clustered chimneys, its windows smothered in creepers.The house had a name and a history; the old gentleman taking his tea would have been delighted to tell you these things: how it had been built under Edward the Sixth, had offered a night's hospitality to the great Elizabeth (whose august person had extended itself upon a huge, magnificent, and terribly angular bed which still formed the principal honour of the sleeping apartments), had been a good deal bruised and defaced in Cromwell's wars, and then, under the Restoration, repaired and much enlarged; and how, finally, after having been remodelled and disfigured in the eighteenth century, it had passed into the careful keeping of a shrewd American banker, who had bought it originally because (owing to circumstances too complicated to set forth) it was offered at a great bargain: bought it with much grumbling at its ugliness, its antiquity, its incommodity, and who now, at the end of twenty years, had become conscious of a real aesthetic passion for it, so that he knew all its points and would tell you just where to stand to see them in combination and just the hour when the shadows of its various protuberances- which fell so softly upon the warm, weary brickwork- were of the right measure.Besides this, as I have said, he could have counted off most of the successive owners and occupants, several of whom were known to general fame; doing so, however, with an undemonstrative conviction that the latest phase of its destiny was not the least honourable.The front of the house overlooking that portion of the lawn with which we are concerned was not the entrance-front; this was in quite another quarter.Privacy here reigned supreme, and the wide carpet of turf that covered the level hill-top seemed but the extension of a luxurious interior.The great still oaks and beeches flung down a shade as dense as that of velvet curtains; and the place was furnished, like a room, with cushioned seats, with rich-coloured rugs, with the books and papers that lay upon the grass.The river was at some distance; where the ground began to slope, the lawn, properly speaking, ceased.But it was none the less a charming walk down to the water.

The old gentleman at the tea-table, who had come from America thirty years before, had brought with him, at the top of his baggage, his American physiognomy; and he had not only brought it with him, but he had kept it in the best order, so that, if necessary, he might have taken it back to his own country with perfect confidence.At present, obviously, nevertheless, he was not likely to displace himself; his journeys were over, and he was taking the rest that precedes the great rest.He had a narrow, clean-shaven face, with features evenly distributed and an expression of placid acuteness.

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2 Episode 2
3 Episode 3
4 Episode 4
5 Episode 5
6 Episode 6
7 Episode 7
8 Episode 8
9 Episode 9
10 Episode 10
11 Episode 11
12 Episode 12
13 Episode 13
14 Episode 14
15 Episode 15
16 Episode 16
17 Episode 17
18 Episode 18
19 Episode 19
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21 Episode 21
22 Episode 22
23 Episode 23
24 Episode 24
25 Episode 25
26 Episode 26
27 Episode 27
28 Episode 28
29 Episode 29
30 Episode 30
31 Episode 31
32 Episode 32
33 Episode 33
34 Episode 34
35 Episode 35
36 Episode 36
37 Episode 37
38 Episode 38
39 Episode 39
40 Episode 40
41 Episode 41
42 Episode 42
43 Episode 43
44 Episode 44
45 Episode 45
46 Episode 46
47 Episode 47
48 Episode 48
49 Episode 49
50 Episode 50
51 Episode 51
52 Episode 52
53 Episode 53
54 Episode 54
55 Episode 55
56 Episode 56
57 Episode 57
58 Episode 58
59 Episode 59
60 Episode 60
61 Episode 61
62 Episode 62
63 Episode 63
64 Episode 64
65 Episode 65
66 Episode 66
67 Episode 67
68 Episode 68
69 Episode 69
70 Episode 70
71 Episode 71
72 Episode 72
73 Episode 73
74 Episode 74
75 Episode 75
76 Episode 76
77 Episode 77
78 Episode 78
79 Episode 79
80 Episode 80
81 Episode 81
82 Episode 82
83 Episode 83
84 Episode 84
85 Episode 85
86 Episode 86
87 Episode 87
88 Episode 88
89 Episode 89
90 Episode 90
91 Episode 91
92 Episode 92
93 Episode 93
94 Episode 94
95 Episode 95
96 Episode 96
97 Episode 97
98 Episode 98
99 Episode 99
100 Episode 100
101 Episode 101
102 Episode 102
103 Episode 103
104 Episode 104
105 Episode 105
106 Episode 106
107 Episode 107
108 Episode 108
109 Episode 109
110 Episode 110
111 Episode 111
112 Episode 112
113 Episode 113
114 Episode 114
115 Episode 115
116 Episode 116
117 Episode 117
118 Episode 118
119 Episode 119
120 Episode 120
121 Episode 121
122 Episode 122
123 Episode 123
124 Episode 124
125 Episode 125
126 Episode 126
127 Episode 127
128 Episode 128
129 Episode 129
130 Episode 130
131 Episode 131
132 Episode 132
133 Episode 133
134 Episode 134
135 Episode 135
136 Episode 136
137 Episode 137
138 Episode 138
139 Episode 139
140 Episode 140
141 Episode 141
142 Episode 142
143 Episode 143
144 Episode 144
145 Episode 145
146 Episode 146
147 Episode 147
148 Episode 148
149 Episode 149
150 Episode 150
151 Episode 151
152 Episode 152
153 Episode 153
154 Episode 154
155 Episode 155
156 Episode 156
157 Episode 157
158 Episode 158
159 Episode 159
160 Episode 160
161 Episode 161
162 Episode 162
163 Episode 163
164 Episode 164
165 Episode 165
166 Episode 166
167 Episode 167
168 Episode 168
169 Episode 169
170 Episode 170
171 Episode 171
172 Episode 172
173 Episode 173
174 Episode 174
175 Episode 175
176 Episode 176
177 Episode 177
178 Episode 178
179 Episode 179
180 Episode 180
181 Episode 181
182 Episode 182
183 Episode 183
184 Episode 184
185 Episode 185
186 Episode 186
187 Episode 187
188 Episode 188
189 Episode 189
190 Episode 190
191 Episode 191
192 Episode 192
193 Episode 193
194 Episode 194
195 Episode 195
196 Episode 196
197 Episode 197
198 Episode 198
199 Episode 199
200 Episode 200
201 Episode 201
202 Episode 202
203 Episode 203
204 Episode 204
205 Episode 205
206 Episode 206
207 Episode 207
208 Episode 208
209 Episode 209
210 Episode 210
211 Episode 211
212 Episode 212
213 Episode 213
214 Episode 214
215 Episode 215
216 Episode 216
217 Episode 217
218 Episode 218
219 Episode 219
220 Episode 220
221 Episode 221
222 Episode 222
223 Episode 223
224 Episode 224
225 Episode 225
226 Episode 226
227 Episode 227
228 Episode 228
229 Episode 229
230 Episode 230
231 Episode 231
232 Episode 232
233 Episode 233
234 Episode 234
235 Episode 235
236 Episode 236
237 Episode 237
238 Episode 238
239 Episode 239
240 Episode 240
241 Episode 241
242 Episode 242
243 Episode 243
244 Episode 244
Episodes

Updated 244 Episodes

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