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Henry James's Books.
Mrs. Gereth had said she would go with the rest to church, but suddenlyit seemed to her that she should not be able to wait even tillchurch-time for relief: breakfast, at Waterbath, was a punctual meal,and she had still nearly an hour on her hands. Knowing the church to benear, she prepared in her room for the little rural walk, and on her waydown again, passing through corridors and observing imbecilities ofdecoration, the æsthetic misery of the big commodious house, she felt areturn of the tide of last night's irritation, a renewal of everythingshe could secretly suffer from ugliness and stupidity. Why did sheconsent to such contacts, why did she so rashly expose herself? She hadhad, heaven knew, her reasons, but the whole experience was to besharper than she had feared. To get away from it and out into the air,into the presence of sky and trees, flowers and birds, was a necessityof every nerve. The flowers at Waterbath would probably go wrong incolor and the nightingales sing out of tune; but she remembered to haveheard the place described as possessing those advantages that areusually spoken of as natural. There were advantages enough it clearlydidn't possess. It was hard for her to believe that a woman could lookpresentable who had been kept awake for hours by the wall-paper in herroom; yet none the less, as in her fresh widow's weeds she rustledacross the hall, she was sustained by the consciousness, which alwaysadded to the unction of her social Sundays, that she was, as usual, theonly person in the house incapable of wearing in her preparation thehorrible stamp of the same exceptional smartness that would beconspicuous in a grocer's wife. She would rather have perished than havelooked endimanchée.
She was fortunately not challenged, the hall being empty of the otherwomen, who were engaged precisely in arraying themselves to that direend. Once in the grounds, she recognized that, with a site, a view thatstruck the note, set an example to its inmates, Waterbath ought to havebeen charming. How she herself, with such elements to handle, would havetaken the fine hint of nature! Suddenly, at the turn of a walk, sh