#206 The Blush- Elizabeth Taylor
Lying, deceit, domestic squabbles, and class warfare, this
story had a little of each but not enough of any to make it all that
interesting. The mistress of the house is a judgmental gossip. Here she begins
by making it sound as though she supports and defends her house maid, but then
by the end she turns her harsh eyes on the ugliness of the lower class:
“She did not deliberately mislead him, but she took
advantage of his indifference. Her relationship with Mrs. Lacey and the
intimacy of their conversations in the kitchen he would not have approved, and
the sight of those calloused feet with their chipped nail varnish and yellowing
heels would have sickened him.”
But then we have nothing to actually celebrate in the
servant either. She’s a drunk, absentee mother, and lying, cheating spouse. So,
without a true protagonist, there was little to hold onto.
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