The Last Post by Ford Madox Ford — Read

The little maid, Beatrice, as well as Gunning, regarded Marie Léonie with paralysed but bewildered obedience. She was 'Er Ladyship, a good mark; a foreign Frenchy, bad; extraordinarily efficient about the house and garden and poultry-yard, a matter for mixed feelings. She was fair, not black-avised, a good mark; she was buxom, not skinny, like the real Quality. A bad mark because she was, then, not real Quality; but a qualifiedly good mark because, if you 'as to 'ave Quality all about you in the 'ouse, 'tis better not to 'ave real Quality. But on the whole the general feeling was favourable, because like themselves she was floridly blond. It made 'er 'uman like. Never you trust a dark woman, and if you marries a dark man 'e will treat you bad. In the English countryside it is like that.

Cabinetmaker Cramp, who was a remnant of the little dark persistent race that once had peopled Sussex, regarded Marie Léonie with distrust that mingled with admiration for the quality of the varnish that she imported from Paris. Proper French Polish that were. He lived in the cottage just across the path on the Common. 'E couldn' say as 'ow 'e liked the job the Governors give 'im. He had to patch up and polish with beeswax -- not varnish -- rough stuff such 's 'is granf'er 'ad 'ad. An' 'ad got rid of. Rough ol' truck. More 'nundred yeers old. N' more!