A Precious Jewel Read Free Page A

promised you after a scolding weeks ago that I would never again step outside alone.”
    “I would think not, too,” Miss Blythe said. “Youmust always remember that you are a young lady, Priscilla.”
    The girl smiled.
    Miss Blythe sighed. “But we will not pursue that thought today,” she said. “You had three clients yesterday. Do you have any complaints?”
    “No,” Priscilla said. “None at all.”
    “You have no bruises?”
    “No.”
    “No one spoke to you disrespectfully?”
    “No.”
    “No profanities?”
    “No.”
    “You have seen both Mr. Loft and Mr. Claremont several times before, of course,” Miss Blythe said. “And I chose them with care at the start, Priscilla, as I choose all your clients. It struck me last evening when Sir Gerald Stapleton came for Sonia that he would be suitable for you too, dear. He seems a quiet and very proper young gentleman. I was glad when he came to make another appointment with you before he left. You must have pleased him. Did you like him?”
    “Yes,” Priscilla said. “I liked him very well.”
    “Sonia has never complained of him,” Miss Blythe said. “He was not rough or demanding of too much, Priscilla?”
    “No,” the girl said. “I liked him. Will Sonia be annoyed with me?”
    “For taking him away from her?” Miss Blythe said.
    “Sonia does not like regulars. She would prefer new challenges. But enough of that. Have you read the book I lent you?”
    “I have not quite finished it,” Priscilla said. “But I greatly admire the author’s wit.”
    “Who is your favorite character?” Miss Blythe asked.
    “Oh.” Priscilla thought. “Mr. Darcy without a doubt, if one is to speak of heroes. I think him quite the most splendid hero of any book I have read. But Mr. Collins is a marvelous creation—a totally obsequious man without in any way becoming a caricature.”
    “Do you feel sorry for his wife?” Miss Blythe asked.
    “Yes and no.” Priscilla smiled. “She could have avoided marrying him, of course, so she had only herself to blame for all the tedium and embarrassment that followed. But then she married him to avoid the worse fate of being a spinster, and she made the best of it afterward and never complained. I think I admire her cheerfulness when she must have felt anything but cheerful in the privacy of her own heart.”
    Miss Blythe listened to her broodingly. “My dear Priscilla,” she said, “you could be describing yourself.”
    “Oh, no.” Priscilla laughed and set down her empty cup and saucer beside her. “I am contented with my life, Miss Blythe. There are many thousands in worse state than I. It would be wicked of me to complain.”
    Miss Blythe sighed again. “You have the gift of contentment,” she said. “You always did, even as a child, Iremember. And it seems here that every casual client soon wishes to become your regular. You must flatter them into feeling that you enjoy giving them service. Men do not like to return to girls who treat them with disdain or indifference even if they have been gifted with voluptuous bodies.”
    Priscilla looked down at her own slender form. “When I embarked on this profession,” she said, “I decided that the only way I would be able to reconcile my conscience to what I was doing would be to do it as well as I am able. Gentlemen come to me for pleasure. I try my very best to give them pleasure.”
    “Angela will be waiting, dear,” Miss Blythe said. “And I am anxious to question her about the swelling around her eye. Send her in, will you?”
    Priscilla crossed the room to set her cup and saucer on the tea tray and bent to kiss the offered cheek of her employer.
    “I have another of the same author’s books that you must read when you have finished this one,” Miss Blythe said before the girl left the room.
    P RISCILLA T IDIED H ER room, though a maid had been in to clean already, and turned down the bed carefully to be ready for her first client late that afternoon.