4. Innocence versus Experience
It was after one such quiet hour in a late November afternoon that Anne laid down her sewing to host an afternoon tea. As well as the Ingleside women there was Miss Cornelia and a guest in the form of Miss Eglantine Ellis, all to be found sitting comfortably around a welcome driftwood fire, the afternoon light just starting to fade outside. Lamps had just been lit, and a fresh pot of tea had just been brought in by the redoubtable Susan, along with a fresh batch of delicious lemon biscuits, which she set down on the table while viewing their visitor out of the corner of her eye with some half-hidden awe.
There was no denying that Eglantine was a beauty. She was one of the loveliest creatures the Glen had ever had in their midst. Long, luxurious tresses of inky black curled their way artfully like ribbons around her slim shoulders, ending in natural ringlets half way down her back. Skin of faerie-white, unmarred by dint or freckle, set the perfect backdrop for her features. Eyes, almost the violet hue of Anne's fantasy heroines of yesteryear were framed by sooty sweeps of long lashes and a dusky rose lived on each plump cheek. There wasn't a lad in the village who didn't dream of claiming the kisses that might be offered from her full, crimson lips and she truly could have had her pick, but therein lay the rub that gave her mother sleepless nights.
At seventeen Miss Eglantine Ellis had shown every sign of choosing a career over marriage, and what was more was that she had announced this to be the case to her mother and anyone who would listen. She had a driving ambition to be a writer, a journalist, to travel the globe and report its news to everyone, and had pushed any thoughts of settling down right out of her head. She would never marry. She wanted a career, and would always choose that over some silly boy. Eglantine's widowed mother, a rather hawk-faced woman not over-blessed with warmth, had one life's ambition which was to see her only daughter settled with a husband and a family. Her daily scolding and nagging regarding this outrage fell on deaf ears, for Eglantine was her father's daughter in that regard, as well as in looks; imperturbable when decided.
It was not ladylike, Mrs. Ellis had intoned sternly. But who wanted to be a lady dismissed Eglantine ? She wanted to be out there with the human race. It was not necessary to have a career – a husband would soon provide – chided her mother but Eglantine scoffed – she would never get married. I simply cannot afford it, was an imperious block – but Eglantine intended to pay her own way; she would be independent. Mrs. Ellis was at her wits' end.
Realising that all her shots had been fired, Mrs. Ellis had thought long and hard for a while and then set out for Ingleside. Once there, she had unburdened herself of her mother's woes and all but begged the Doctor's wife to talk some sense into the girl. Mrs. Ellis knew that the Doctor's wife 'wrote a bit'; a fact still eyed with slight suspicion in the generality of Four Winds; but it was plain to see she also was a very happily married woman who had chosen to raise a family above all. Eglantine's mother may have lacked vision and empathy, but she was shrewd enough to see that here was a perfect example to hold up to Eglantine, in order that it might help to change her daughter's ridiculously willful views over to her own way of thinking. She knew, too, that Leslie West was residing there for the time being, and not even Mrs. Ellis had failed to see the effect that thoughts and plans for a forthcoming marriage had had upon her.
Work in progress.