Page:Sheila and Others (1920).djvu/159

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THE FAULTLESS ADELINA
147

entitled to personal interest and aid in return. So at least it has seemed to me.

But I quickly found that any little extension of this kind that I had been able to make in previous connections, were superfluous in Adelina's case. She was quite able to look after herself, and indeed, I was by no means sure that the activities of my own social life would not have appeared both meager and tame to her. She was a member of several girls' clubs, she went to private dances, and sang in the choir of her church on Sundays. She had a fine voice and I began to feel conscious of a sneaking snobbishness in not asking her to sing for the family in the evenings after the dishes were done, while I played the accompaniments. But I didn't, whether from fear of what the family would say, or what she would do, I don't know. I am a miserable coward in spots, and the 20th century housekeeper in Canada gets past having any private feelings of her own, or at least, consulting them.

The arrangement of our Sunday as it related to culinary affairs had to be revised to fit in with Adelina's requirements. She was very cheerful about it. She didn't insist, she