Read Online (6/13) Gossip from Thrush Green by Miss Read - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Miss Read
Tags: Fiction, Country Life, Country Life - England, Pastoral Fiction, Thrush Green (Imaginary Place)
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to be open from 10 a.m. until 2.30 p.m., catering as usual for exhausted shoppers needing morning coffee, and local businessmen and women needing a modest lunch. The premises would then close until 6.30 p.m. when it would offer dinner to those who required it. The time-honoured afternoon tea was now a thing of the past, and regret and acrimony were widely expressed.
'Never heard such nonsense,' said Ella Bembridge to Winnie Bailey. 'The Fuchsia Bush was always busiest at tea time, and they've got that marvellous girl in the kitchen who knocks up the best scones in the Cotswolds. Why, those alone bring in dozens of travellers between four and five every afternoon.'
'They say it's a staffing problem,' replied Winnie. 'Evidently they can get part-timers to come in the morning and to cope with the lunches, and more to appear in the evenings when the husbands are home to look after the children.'
'Well, it's a scandal,' replied Ella, blowing out a cloud of acrid smoke. 'It was just the place to meet after shopping or the dentist, and I must say their Darjeeling tea took some beating. As for trying to compete with The Fleece and The Crown and Anchor for dinners, it's plain idiotic.'
'Well, Jenny tells me that she knows two women who are going to do the evening stint there, and everyone feels it might work, so we must just wait and see.'
Miss Watson, proved right yet again, was inclined to be indulgent about the lost tea time at The Fuchsia Bush. In any case, teachers were usually buttoning children's coats, and exhorting them to keep out of trouble on their homeward journeys, at the relevant opening time. As she remarked to little Miss Fogerty:
'It won't affect us greatly, dear, but I think it is very foolish of these tea shops to close at such a time. American tourists alone must miss experiencing a truly English tea with attentive waitresses in those pretty flowered smocks to serve them.'
Miss Fogerty, whose purse had seldom allowed her to indulge in even such a modest repast as tea at The Fuchsia Bush, agreed wholeheartedly. She disliked change.
The Misses Lovelock, whose Georgian house stood close to the premises, were the only ones who seemed to favour the project.
'We shall have a little peace on summer afternoons now,' said Bertha. Why, I've even seen coaches stop there and drop hordes of people—some of them not quite out of the top drawer—and of course quite a few wandered about while they waited to go in, and one day a most dreadful man, with a squint, pressed his face to our window and very much frightened us all.'
'Good job it was downstairs,' Ella had remarked. 'Upstairs you might have been in your corsets, or less.'
Bertha chose to ignore such coarseness. Really, at times one wondered about Ella's upbringing!
'No,' said Violet, hastening to Bertha's support, 'we shan't mind The Fuchsia Bush closing for teas, whatever the rest of Lulling is saying.'
'You'll just get the racket later in the day,' observed Ella, stubbing out a cigarette in a priceless Meissen bon-bon dish at her side. 'Be plenty of cars parking, I expect, when they open in the evening.'
And, happy to have the last word for once, Ella departed.
The visit of Miss Watson's brother Ray and his wife occurred about this time. Although little Miss Fogerty was glad to see that Dorothy's sisterly feelings had prompted her to invite Ray and Kathleen to tea after school, nevertheless she had inner forebodings about their reception.
There was no doubt about it. The unfortunate coolness which had arisen dated from Dorothy's enforced stay in hospital with a broken hip some time before. Agnes, who had been a devoted visitor, realised that Dorothy's assumption that she would be invited to convalesce at Ray's was misplaced, to say the least of it. Luckily, she had been in a position to offer immediate help, and took up residence at the school house to look after the invalid. Dorothy, evergrateful, had reciprocated by asking her old colleague to make
'Never heard such nonsense,' said Ella Bembridge to Winnie Bailey. 'The Fuchsia Bush was always busiest at tea time, and they've got that marvellous girl in the kitchen who knocks up the best scones in the Cotswolds. Why, those alone bring in dozens of travellers between four and five every afternoon.'
'They say it's a staffing problem,' replied Winnie. 'Evidently they can get part-timers to come in the morning and to cope with the lunches, and more to appear in the evenings when the husbands are home to look after the children.'
'Well, it's a scandal,' replied Ella, blowing out a cloud of acrid smoke. 'It was just the place to meet after shopping or the dentist, and I must say their Darjeeling tea took some beating. As for trying to compete with The Fleece and The Crown and Anchor for dinners, it's plain idiotic.'
'Well, Jenny tells me that she knows two women who are going to do the evening stint there, and everyone feels it might work, so we must just wait and see.'
Miss Watson, proved right yet again, was inclined to be indulgent about the lost tea time at The Fuchsia Bush. In any case, teachers were usually buttoning children's coats, and exhorting them to keep out of trouble on their homeward journeys, at the relevant opening time. As she remarked to little Miss Fogerty:
'It won't affect us greatly, dear, but I think it is very foolish of these tea shops to close at such a time. American tourists alone must miss experiencing a truly English tea with attentive waitresses in those pretty flowered smocks to serve them.'
Miss Fogerty, whose purse had seldom allowed her to indulge in even such a modest repast as tea at The Fuchsia Bush, agreed wholeheartedly. She disliked change.
The Misses Lovelock, whose Georgian house stood close to the premises, were the only ones who seemed to favour the project.
'We shall have a little peace on summer afternoons now,' said Bertha. Why, I've even seen coaches stop there and drop hordes of people—some of them not quite out of the top drawer—and of course quite a few wandered about while they waited to go in, and one day a most dreadful man, with a squint, pressed his face to our window and very much frightened us all.'
'Good job it was downstairs,' Ella had remarked. 'Upstairs you might have been in your corsets, or less.'
Bertha chose to ignore such coarseness. Really, at times one wondered about Ella's upbringing!
'No,' said Violet, hastening to Bertha's support, 'we shan't mind The Fuchsia Bush closing for teas, whatever the rest of Lulling is saying.'
'You'll just get the racket later in the day,' observed Ella, stubbing out a cigarette in a priceless Meissen bon-bon dish at her side. 'Be plenty of cars parking, I expect, when they open in the evening.'
And, happy to have the last word for once, Ella departed.
The visit of Miss Watson's brother Ray and his wife occurred about this time. Although little Miss Fogerty was glad to see that Dorothy's sisterly feelings had prompted her to invite Ray and Kathleen to tea after school, nevertheless she had inner forebodings about their reception.
There was no doubt about it. The unfortunate coolness which had arisen dated from Dorothy's enforced stay in hospital with a broken hip some time before. Agnes, who had been a devoted visitor, realised that Dorothy's assumption that she would be invited to convalesce at Ray's was misplaced, to say the least of it. Luckily, she had been in a position to offer immediate help, and took up residence at the school house to look after the invalid. Dorothy, evergrateful, had reciprocated by asking her old colleague to make
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