The incongruity of the objects, the association of the fully clothed and the partly draped, the garishness of the different colours and their plaid-like juxtapositions afflicted Orlando with the most profound dismay. She had never, in all her life, seen anything at once so indecent, so hideous, and so monumental. It might, and indeed it must be, the effect of the sun on the waterlogged air; it would vanish with the first breeze that blew; but for all that, it looked, as she drove past, as if it were destined to endure forever. Nothing, she felt, sinking back into the corner of her coach, no wind, rain, sun, or thunder, could ever demolish that garish erection. Only the noses would mottle and the trumpets would rust; but there they would remain, pointing east, west, south, and north, eternally. She looked back as her coach swept up Constitution Hill. Yes, there it was, still beaming placidly in a light which—she pulled her watch out of her fob—was, of course, the light of twelve o’clock midday. None other could be so prosaic, so matter-of-fact, so impervious to any hint of dawn or sunset, so seemingly calculated to last forever. She was determined not to look again. Already she felt the tides of her blood run sluggishly. But what was more peculiar, a blush, vivid and singular, overspread her cheeks as she passed Buckingham Palace and her eyes seemed forced by a superior power down upon her knees. Suddenly she saw with a start that she was wearing black breeches. She never ceased blushing till she had reached her country house, which, considering the time it takes four horses to trot thirty miles, will be taken, we hope, as a signal proof of her chastity.
Una vez allí, obedeció lo que ya se había convertido en la necesidad más imperiosa de su naturaleza y se envolvió lo mejor que pudo en un edredón de damasco que arrebató de su cama.
Le explicó a la viuda Bartholomew (quien había sucedido a la buena y vieja Grimsditch como ama de llaves) que sentía frío.
—Todas lo hacemos, mi lady —dijo la Viuda, exhalando un suspiro profundo—. Las paredes están sudando —dijo, con una curiosa y