Free A Woman of Consequence by Anna Dean

hardly possible for female voices to be heard at all. For Mr H-F himself pays his compliments, talks about poachers and tells his jokes so loud that, if you do but listen carefully, you may hear the glass drops on the chandelier tinkling in answer to his speeches.
    And then there was Mr Coulson braying down his nose and shouting ‘Quite so!’ and ‘Very good, sir!’ whenever the master of the house might be deemed to have said anything clever. Mr Coulson, by the by, is an addition to our society since your going to London, so I had better introduce him. He is a very young man – a relation, I believe, of both the Harmans and the Crockfords and the ward of old Mr Harman at whose expense he has been educated. He is not long finished at Oxford and intends to make his mark upon the world. He fancies himself very clever in the landscape gardening line and, once he has demonstrated his skill at Madderstone, he means ‘to make a mint of money at it in no time at all’.
    It would seem that at one time or another Mr Coulson  has considered devoting his talents to every profession from the navy to the church, and does not doubt that he could have, ‘made a pretty fine show’ at anything he set his mind to. But – as he gave the whole table to understand – it is in medicine that his genius might have had full rein. And he would have done a great deal more good than that ‘dunderheaded sawbones Paynter’, who is ‘as dull-witted as any medical fellow he ever met ’.
    I rather wondered why he should wish to speak so slightingly of poor Mr Paynter – a gentleman he can hardly know – but I had no opportunity to enquire. For meanwhile Mr Portinscale was busy denouncing the iniquities of the entire world, with all the force of the pulpit; and Harriet and Lucy were making a great to-do because poor Silas was attempting to eat a ragout which they were sure was too rich for his constitution. And all the time our old friend James Laurence was talking to me incessantly about the navy .
    I cannot like Captain Laurence. He is too much inclined to pressgang the conversation and carry it away aboard ship. And once he has got it there, what can his listener do? One has nothing at all to say and can only exclaim upon the captain’s bravery and hardihood – which becomes excessively dull after the first five minutes. But Lucy, I fancy, would have been exceedingly happy to do the exclaiming and was rather aggrieved that it fell to my lot rather than hers .
    Well, so much for dinner. But I wish particularly to tell you about what happened afterwards. And the first thing is that Anne Harman-Foote and I had the drawing room to ourselves for a little while before tea. Harriet returned to Penelope straight after dinner and Lucy, I think, went with her. The men, I believe, were occupied in the billiard room, for I could hear the clatter of  cue and balls all the time that we were talking. Anyway, Anne (you see how our intimacy is increased! I have been authorised to use the name) and I were left alone in the drawing room and I took the opportunity of finding out as much as I might about Miss Fenn.
    My first business was to discover all that I could about her family and connections – but there I more or less drew a blank. Miss Fenn, it seems, was a woman of ‘very respectable’ family, but poor; she was a neighbour of old Mrs Foote in Shropshire and she came to Madderstone upon her recommendation. Mrs Foote, by the by, seems to have been a great recommender of maids, governesses and companions; she was generally regarded as being very ‘sensible and straightforward’ in these matters and it was quite the accepted practice to apply to her when any such appointment was to be made.
    I asked next about Miss Fenn’s life at Madderstone. What were her pursuits? Her friends? And – that all-important question for every governess – how much did she ‘mix in the family’.
    Well, if she had any friends in the neighbourhood, her pupil knew