![]() ![]() Although other guests gossip about the elderly lady, mainly due to her advanced years, her retinue refer to her as good Lady Duncayne due to her kindness. ![]() ![]() Whilst her friend is away, touring Italy, she hears rumours of other companions whose health failed and who died. As time passes Bella feels a lassitude coming over her and also finds that she is prone to a strange dream – the description more a whirling sensation than substance – and disposed to mosquito bites, which are treated by Lady Duncayne’s Doctor, Dr Parravicini. She only makes one friend, Lotta, who is in Italy with her brother Mr Stafford (despite their friendship Lotta does warn her brother off romantic thoughts, given how destitute Bella is). Within a week she is to travel to winter in Italy with the woman. That is until the agent has her meet the wizened Lady Duncayne who, having checked that she is healthy, immediately hires Bella for a princely salary of £100 per annum. ![]() Published in 1896, Good Lady Duncayne was a short by prolific author Mary Elizabeth Braddon and follows the fortunes (and misfortunes) and Bella Rolleston – a young woman determined to earn a salary in order that she might lift her mother and herself out of the poverty they live in.Īs such she goes to an agency that arranges work as a companion but, given her lack of education and young age, she really has little chance of finding a position with anyone. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |