Edward Knight's Family
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Elizabeth Austen, later Knight, continued.
'... when the housekeeping was done – and yet what house was ever run as that one was, the orderly quiet comfort of it! Behind which, if one had thought of it, one would have recognized the firm, unseen hands; the servants grown old in the service of the 'Master and 'Mistress' and whose interests were identical with their own – the perfection of every detail, and the utter absence of any apparent effort to attain it!
What did my beautiful lady mean? Soft old brocades and silks, finest of lawn and lace yellowed by age; soft Indian shawls, a cap of delicate old lace and coloured ribbon on the soft brown hair, more brown than grey to the last day of her long life.
Beautiful in her youth, she was yet more beautiful in her old age, high bred, gracious and witty – with an ever-young interest in all that went on about her, a keen sense of humour and a smile which an adoring grandson compared to 'the light of a thousand lamps.' Yet there was still something more, the feeling when one was with her that one was ever on the verge of fresh discoveries, and that behind the delicate veil of reticence, unknown to this generation, there were depths of character still unguaged [sic], but, as one felt, based on and pervaded by a religion about which she did not talk, but which brought her through every trial and sorrow calm and undismayed. Small wonder that such an old lady was worshipped alike by husband, children, friends and relations – and that ...'
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