The Ginger Tree Read Online Free

stewards already serving alcoholic drinks. The Judge was in charge and came over to me at once, calling on Mrs Price to join us. She was wearing a dress I had not seen before, green silk, very plain, but a good colour with her hair which is quite bright, not auburn, but with orange-seeming glints through it. Somehow I wasn’t so pleased with my voile, there is perhaps too much detail with those ruffles and thecolour not quite right, a sort of blue-mauve, the spots white. I couldn’t help thinking that with my face flushed pink, as I could feel it was, I was not looking my best. Usually my skin is like ivory, and I have never been threatened by rosy cheeks.
    The Judge introduced me to Mrs Price to whom I had not spoken before and she smiled quite sweetly while we exchanged politenesses, after which she gave me her music. On top was ‘Pale Hands I Loved Beside the Shalimar’, something of a surprise because when I have heard it once or twice it had always been a man’s song and I remember that at one Edinburgh musical evening some of the ladies said that it was rather unpleasantly suggestive. Her other song was the ‘Londonderry Air’ with the Danny Boy words, and her encore ‘Where the Mountains of Mourne’ etc., which made me wonder if she has Irish connections.
    The Judge led us to seats which were not with the others but at an angle to them, so that the audience could look at us even while we were not performing, which I didn’t like. It was a surprise to see that one of the other performers was the First Officer who reads the Divine Service, a rather solemn-looking man who does not seem to preside over a very cheerful table in the dining saloon. There was also the ship’s doctor who sat down on the other side of me from Mrs Price and we spoke for the first time. He asked me if I was going to sing and I said I was just an accompanist and he told me that for his sins he gave humorous recitations , but did not have a large repertoire because there was no need to increase it, his audiences changing on every voyage. He is a gingery sort of man with almost greenish eyes and doesn’t look old when he smiles. Also, he has no moustache, which is a good thing, because I don’t like ginger moustaches. I think I would find it very embarrassing to go to him as a doctor, he has a way of looking that is too bold. His name is Dr Waterford . Perhaps Mrs C is right about something in his past, but if that is the case it seems to sit lightly on him.
    While I was talking to the doctor the lady with the two children from the Second Class came in. She was wearing a white dress that was quite pretty and had her hair dressed very well in a simple style. She stood in the doorway looking more frightened than I had felt, and if I had not been aperformer I think I would have gone over to welcome her. Fortunately the Judge turned and saw her and he did that, very pleasantly in a nice old-gentlemanly manner. When he wishes to, the Judge can be very agreeable, and I think it is quite wrong of him to goad me in connection with Mrs C, which is what I am beginning to see he is doing. Why? While the lady from the Second Class was being shown to her seat I saw the wife of the Consul in Swatow staring at her. For once I agree with Mrs C. I do not care for that woman. She had on yet another new dress of cream-coloured Shantung silk cut very low in front with a lace collar that was boned to stand up all around her neck almost like the collars you see in pictures of Queen Elizabeth. The collar seemed to me to call attention to her face, which is very hard, and certainly not young. I think she uses paint. Perhaps she smokes in private? Mrs C says that in these times of lax morals there are ladies who do, though this might just be one of her exaggerations.
    Perhaps because I was looking at her the lady from Swatow looked at me, only she was staring. Suddenly I realised that I should have worn my corset under the voile and that she suspected I wasn’t,