Free The Lorimer Legacy by Anne Melville

learning German here.’
    â€˜You are too slight for Wagner,’ said La Becattini dismissively. ‘His work demands a stronger constitution. But of course German would be necessary if you were tosing in Dresden or Vienna. Well, I could give you some exercises. Teach you a role, perhaps, if you are quick and promise not to bore me. There will be no society to amuse me here until July. You can call in the mornings if you wish. I am at home to my friends at noon. You should come at ten.’
    She nodded brusquely at Lady Glanville, recognizing that no great thanks were due for an invitation designed so much more for Alexa’s advantage than her own, and strode away. Alexa took the seat she had left and squeezed Lady Glanville’s hands between her own. Her eyes were bright with happiness.
    â€˜Dear Lady Glanville, why should you do so much for me?’ she asked.
    Tired though she was, Lady Glanville laughed with an affectionate amusement.
    â€˜Boredom is a disease that the thermal waters cannot cure,’ she said. ‘You are bored because you dream of excitement without knowing how to attain it. La Becattini is bored because she remembers excitements she will never be able to repeat. And I am afraid that unless I can provide you with occupation you will return to England and leave me to be bored with my own company. But now, I hope, we shall all be happy. Will you help me to bed, Alexa? It’s been a long day, and I am tired.’
    Together, and very slowly, they went up the marble stairs to Lady Glanville’s suite. Often at such times Alexa was overwhelmed with pity for a woman who was not yet forty years old but who would soon need to be pushed in a chair from one place to another. It had already become obvious that Baden-Baden could offer no treatment to cure Lady Glanville’s condition, although the heat of mud or water made her limbs less painful while they were immersed.
    Lord Glanville returned to Baden-Baden. The lack ofimprovement in his wife’s condition caused him to frown anxiously and ask quiet questions of the maid; but in Lady Glanville’s presence he was as cheerful and as kind as ever. She had little news of her own to give him, but was enthusiastic about Alexa’s progress, and the information appeared to give her husband pleasure.
    â€˜I’m glad that the hopes my brother raised are not after all to be disappointed,’ he said, as they sat together in the Gasteshaus one evening after Lady Glanville had retired to bed. ‘When you are rich and famous, I hope you will lend your name to my campaign.’
    â€˜I shall do anything I can to repay you and Lady Glanville, whether I become successful or not,’ Alexa promised. ‘But what
is
your campaign, my lord?’
    â€˜I believe that women should have the same right as men to vote in Parliamentary elections,’ he told her. ‘Do you agree with that?’
    He was smiling as he asked the question, perhaps taking her answer for granted. But Alexa, applying the theory to herself, frowned doubtfully.
    â€˜I know nothing about politics: nothing at all,’ she said. ‘How could my vote be of value when it would be so uninformed? And most women, surely, are in the same position as myself.’
    â€˜Women have ceased to concern themselves with political affairs simply because they are not allowed to put any opinions to practical effect and are hardly encouraged to express them even in conversation. A woman can feel definite views on those spheres of life in which she is allowed responsibility. Once she is allowed to influence government in her choices, she will for the first time take pains to understand what the choices are.’
    â€˜It sounds to me, my lord, as though you are more concerned to change the nature of women than of Parliament.’
    He gave a laugh more carefree than she had ever heard from him before.
    â€˜Perhaps you are right – and the subtlety with