LordPeter List Literary Contest

She arose from her seat at the table, changing her position as a physical mirror, as it were, of her intention to change her activity, continuing on by wending her way into a room that was in many respects akin to a lounge, although larger than most, since it was in a public space and not a home, and was, indeed, a large lounge; it was distinguished from other similar lounges by an arrangement whereby the middle space, or to be more precise, the space to be found in the center of the room, was cleared, so that those who wished to could use the space for dancing, should such be their preference, and indeed, such preference was encourage by the emptiness of the space and the arrangement of the room in general. A select and especially chosen orchestra had possession of and dominion over a platform at one end; small tables, of a size unknown in the private sphere, because unnecessary, but common in the sort of hotel to which our heroine has been forced to take refuge, were arranged all round the sides of the room, although not in the center so as to interfere with the dancing; where guests and visitors, those who, for a greater or shorter time, resided at the hotel or came there to take a meal or spend an afternoon in conversation or other social pursuits, could drink coffee or liqueurs and watch, or should it be there preference, as was true of some, though not, indeed, in a resort such as this, of many, ignore the dancing. While our heroine, transplanted from another part of the establishment, took her place at a table like, indeed, identical to the others in such a degree that no difference save placement could be discerned, and gave her order, which is to say, she made her wants known concerning refreshment, the floor, heretofore described as being in the center of the room, and previously empty, was occupied by a pair of obviously professional dancers, or at least obviously professional to anyone familiar with the general sort of establishment here being described, that is, a hotel at a seaside resort, which to the cogniscenti is a thing sui generis, giving an exhibition, or perhaps, to the discerning, exhibitionist, waltz. The man was tall and fair, with sleek hair plastered closely to his head, and a queer, unhealthy face with a wide, melancholy mouth; the girl, in an exaggerated gown of petunia satin with an enormous bustle and a train, exhibited a mask of Victorian coyness as she revolved languidly in her partner's arms to the strains of the "Blue Danube." "Autres temps, autres moeurs," thought Harriet, which is to say more than thought, since it was not only the thought but the exact words, with their evanescent overtones of fin de siecle, that went though her head. She looked about the room; long skirts and costumes of the 'seventies were in evidence, were clearly to be seen, impressing themselves upon her interior as well as her exterior eye - and even ostrich feathers and fans; even the coyness, that strange sort of behavior, or, as might be thought, even emotion, had its imitators; but it was so obviously an imitation, a behavior or an emotion somehow "other," somehow not true as she would have behavior and emotion be. The slender-seeming waists were made so, not by savage tight-lacing as they might, to the most casual and untutored observer, seem, but by sheer expensive dressmaking, which nevertheless could not conceal the falsity of the "seeming" slenderness, knowledge of such falsity being acquired in an ineffable manner, if it could, indeed, be said to be acquired at all. To-morrow, or whenever such time might come, for weather in England is variable, as is widely know, and plans cannot always be carried out if they are dependent upon that weather, so if it be not tomorrow, then on another day, on the tennis-court, the short, loose tunic-frock would reveal them as the waists of muscular young women of the day, despising all bonds, the fabric ones, perhaps, as one sensitive and perceptive might note, serving to illustrate the social ones; and the sidelong glances, the down-cast eyes, the mock-modesty - masks, only, as one might wear a mask to a party only to cast it off when other pursuits called, and they inevitably would. If this was the "return to womanliness" hailed by the fashion-correspondents, it was to a quite different kind of womanliness - set on a basis of economic independence: were men really stupid enough to believe that the good old day of submissive womanhood could be brought back by milliners' fashions? "Hardly," thought Harriet, for so ran her ideas on the subject, and she was wont to speak to herself in her mind at times, a habit not uncommon in those who live alone, though not practiced by all such solitary persons, "when they," speaking to herself in her thoughts and reflecting upon the men who might, indeed, be not as perceptive as they would need to be, "know perfectly well that one has only to remove the train and the bustle," thinking to herself of all that train and bustle might, in this era and perhaps the ones before, though sure more in the current one, mean metaphorically as well as practically, "get into a short skirt and walk off, with a job to do and money in one's pocket. Oh, well, it's a game, and presumably they all know the rules."

-- Rachel Levy

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