CHAPTER IV


The Sound Sense of Lady Cannon


Lady Cannon had never been seen after half-past seven except in evening
dress, generally a velvet dress of some dark crimson or bottle-green, so
tightly-fitting as to give her an appearance of being rather upholstered
than clothed. Her cloaks were always like well-hung curtains, her trains
like heavy carpets; one might fancy that she got her gowns from Gillows.
Her pearl dog-collar, her diamond ear-rings, her dark red fringe and the
other details of her toilette were put on with the same precision when
she dined alone with Sir Charles as if she were going to a ceremonious
reception. She was a very tall, fine-looking woman. In Paris, where she
sometimes went to see Ella at school, she attracted much public
attention as _une femme superbe_. Frenchmen were heard to remark to one
another that her husband _ne devrait pas s'embeter_ (which, as a matter
of fact, was precisely what he did--to extinction); and even in the
streets when she walked out the gamins used to exclaim, '_Voila l'Arc de
Triomphe qui se promene!_'--to her intense fury and gratification. She
was still handsome, with hard, wide-open blue eyes, and straight
features. She always held her head as if she were being photographed in
a tiara _en profil perdu_. It was in this attitude that she had often
been photographed and was now most usually seen; and it seemed so
characteristic that even her husband, if he accidentally caught a