Reluctant sinners / by Sidney Fairway.

  • Fairway, Sidney, 1879-1947.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Reluctant sinners / by Sidney Fairway. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “Oh, Lower Sydenham !” said the lady, placing her hurriedly on the ground as though wet drawers must be an inevitable accompaniment of such surroundings. But now, admitted as an honoured guest to The Cedars, she felt she might almost turn up her shapely nose and say : “Oh, Sydenham Hill”. For the Sydenham Hill of to-day is not as the Sydenham Hill of yesterday : it has lost caste, being engulfed in the backwash of a retreating aristocracy which has fled from the wrath to come, leaving its mansions to the architectural opportunism of a generation which prefers flats to homes and picture palaces to cathedrals. So Sylvia dressed for dinner and, though she smelt slightly of naphthalene balls, the reflection from the great mirror in the hall gave her satisfaction. She was made for a nobler destiny than Humphrey could ever offer. Lady Gebbarde, coming down the broad staircase, caught the glance and she smiled. “You look beautiful, my dear,” she said. “A bright gem in a fair setting. Welcome to The Cedars.” Her hand strayed down the white softness of the girl’s arm with the lingering appreciation of a con¬ noisseur. “There are cocktails in the lounge,” she said. Her ladyship was wearing a heavy cerise velvet, loosely draped around the bony framework of her massive figure. She took the girl’s arm and piloted her towards the introductory stimulus of a sweet Martini. There was a generous log fire in the hall, and, above it, the portrait of a man with trim mutton- chop whiskers, a bald head and mild, frightened eyes. “My husband,” said Lady Gebbarde. And as they passed across the hall the sad eyes followed Sylvia with a mute appeal. Possibly he found the furnace below his truncated form too realistic to be pleasant.