One was her
extreme aversion for shops, and indeed for going into any concrete
little details. It has been said that her feeling for dress was sure
and unerring. But it was entirely that of the artist; it was
impressionistic. Edith was very clever, indeed, most ingenious, in
managing practical affairs, as long as she was the director, the
general of the campaign. But she did not like carrying out in detail
her plans. She liked to be the architect, not the workman.
For example, the small household affairs in the flat went on wheels;
everything was almost always perfect. But Edith did not rattle her
housekeeping keys, or count the coals, nor did she even go through
accounts, or into the kitchen every day. The secret was simple. She had
a good cook and housekeeper, who managed all these important but
tedious details admirably, under her suggestions. In order to do this
Edith had to practise a little fraud on Bruce, a justifiable and quite
unselfish one. She gave the cook and housekeeper a quarter of her dress
allowance, in addition to the wages Bruce considered sufficient;
because Bruce believed that they could not afford more than a certain
amount for a cook, while he admitted that Edith, who had a few hundred
pounds a year of her own, might need to spend this on dress. Very
little of it went on dress, although Edith was not very economical. But
she had a plan of her own; she knew that to be dressed in a very
ordinary style (that is to say, simple, conventional, comme il faut)
suited her, by throwing her unusual beauty into relief.
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