And she is very poor--you know Mrs. Peniston cut her off with a small legacy, after giving her to understand that she was to have everything. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston, however, did not suffer from her niece's adaptability. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
The first two weeks after her return represented to Mrs. Peniston the domestic equivalent of a religious retreat. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Miss Stepney, in the beginning, had not meant to bring up this point; but Mrs. Peniston had only her own incredulity to blame. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston felt as if there had been a contagious illness in the house, and she was doomed to sit shivering among her contaminated furniture. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
She sighed to think what her mother's fierce energies would have accomplished, had they been coupled with Mrs. Peniston's resources. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
I don't know what you DO mean, said Mrs. Peniston, with a frightened quiver in her small fretful voice. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Lily found Mrs. Peniston in a state of agitation. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston delighted in discussing the minutest details of festivities in which she had not taken part. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Having corrected the irregularity, she seated herself on one of the glossy purple arm-chairs; Mrs. Peniston always sat on a chair, never in it. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
I've had a dreadful lesson, and if you'll help me out this time I promise you-- Mrs. Peniston raised her hand warningly. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
She saw that at all costs she must keep Mrs. Peniston's favour till, as Mrs. Bart would have phrased it, she could stand on her own legs. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Beyond this, Mrs. Peniston had not felt called upon to do anything for her charge: she had simply stood aside and let her take the field. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
She was in truth grateful for the refuge offered her: Mrs. Peniston's opulent interior was at least not externally dingy. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston again paused, but this time her scrutiny addressed itself, not to the furniture, but to her niece. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston examined her critically. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston thought the country lonely and trees damp, and cherished a vague fear of meeting a bull. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
When I do come, it's not to look at Mrs. Peniston's furniture. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Well, said Mrs. Peniston, what I complain of is that you haven't told me yet what IS being said. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston was a small plump woman, with a colourless skin lined with trivial wrinkles. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
It was agreeable to shock Mrs. Peniston, but not to shock her to the verge of anger. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston glanced at the clock, and swallowed a tablet of digitalis. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston's icy drawing-room grate shone with a forbidding lustre: the fire, like the lamps, was never lit except when there was company. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston's face clouded perceptibly, but did not express the astonishment her niece had expected. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
She was silent, and Lily was forced to continue: I have been foolish---- No doubt you have: extremely foolish, Mrs. Peniston interposed. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
For being hard up--and accepting attentions from men like Gus Trenor--and George Dorset---- Mrs. Peniston gave another cry. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Sometimes she thought it was because Mrs. Peniston had been too passive, and again she feared it was because she herself had not been passive enough. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Every one was surprised, but one and all concealed their surprise, lest Mrs. Peniston should be alarmed by it into reconsidering her decision. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.
Mrs. Peniston disliked scenes, and her determination to avoid them had always led her to hold herself aloof from the details of Lily's life. 伊迪丝·华顿.快乐之家.