A Lady of Lyndon

Margaret Kennedy Reading Week

" ...a portrait of the mother of John and James which hung over the fireplace. This picture had interested her. The sheen of the green velvet gown, cut in the aesthetic style of the 'eighties, toned well with the green Sevres..

..on the chimneypiece and was painted with unquestionable ability. The brooding peevishness of the face, however gave food for reflection. It was a discordant note in a complacent room, suggesting a hidden,bygone rebellion

Mrs Gordon Clewer, who had been chuckling to herself, now startled Agatha by observing: 'If John takes after his father he won't want it. My poor nephew couldn't do with it at all. That's why he wouldn't have it at Lyndon. It was a great deal too good. And that gown was symbolical of  so much in poor Mary that he couldn't abide. She got the greeny-yallery craze very badly and would go about looking like an invertebrate Burne-Jones. That's a little trying, you know, for a man who likes his wife to be well corseted.' "......p9 The ladies of Lyndon

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