1969, ISBN: 9780862205287

New York: Lippincott, 1969. Hard Cover. Good/Fair. 1 Anne-Louise always enjoyed serving at the Rectory Hunt Day dinners. · Invariably the Rector was drunk and… More...

New York: Lippincott, 1969. Hard Cover. Good/Fair. 1 Anne-Louise always enjoyed serving at the Rectory Hunt Day dinners. · Invariably the Rector was drunk and the dinners were dramatic and full of incident. She wasn't especially shocked or bothered by the Rector's- behavior, merely interested and also a little contemptuous because she knew that none of the Elders in the Meeting where she worshiped would indulge in this kind of conduct. But she enjoyed· the excitement and the general air of tension, the sense that at any moment some unexpected mishap could occur. It made her feel nervous but at the same time very superior and detached. Mrs. Panter, the Rector's wife, was always irritable and fault-finding at dinner parties-Anne knew it was because she resented having· to· make do with a village parlor maid instead of a butler-but when the Rector was drunk the necessity of .having to conceal his inebriation from the guests made Mrs. Panter even more capricious and disagreeable than usual. On this April day-the last Hunt of the season-Anne recognized all the symptoms of the Rector's disorder: the too-red face and the too-loud voice. More than ten minutes had passed since she · had brought in the fourteen-pound goose and placed it before him. It lay resplendent and glistening with apricot sauce, and still the Rector made no attempt to begin carving, occupying himself with a rearranging of the plates and an unnecessary examination of the carvers. Waiting to serve the vegetables from the sideboard, Anne Louise debated whether or not she should put down the dish of roast potatoes she was holding. It was heavy, and she could feel the heat gradually seeping away from the vegetable ., Lippincott, 1969<