Though Mannering was not ill-warmed, Alice moved about it
in winter wrapped in a picturesque coat of black velvet trimmed with
chinchilla, her head wreathed in white lace. From this rather
pompous setting her fair hair, small person, and pinched pale face
looked out perhaps with greater dignity than they could have
achieved unadorned. Her chilliness, her small self-indulgences,
including an inordinate love of cakes and all sweet things, were the
standing joke of the twins when they discussed the family freely
behind the closed doors of the 'Den.' But no one disliked Alice
Gaddesden, though it was hard to be actively fond of her. She and
her husband were quite good friends; but they were no longer of any
real importance to each other. He was a good deal older than she;
and was often away from London on 'war work' in the Midlands. On
these occasions Alice generally invited herself to Mannering. She
thus got rid of housekeeping, which in these days of rations worried
her to death. Moreover, food at Mannering was much more plentiful
than food in town--especially since the advent of Elizabeth
Bremerton.
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