CHAPTER VIII. -Crome yellow

Breakfast at Crome on Sunday morning was a more leisurely affair, with Priscilla making a rare appearance before luncheon. Adorned in black silk and her usual pearls plus a ruby cross, she dominated the scene, her attention partly dedicated to the enormous Sunday paper that masked most of her appearance from view. Amidst her meal, she noted Surrey’s victory in cricket, attributing it to the astrological positioning of the sun in Leo, emphasizing the game’s quintessentially English character—a sentiment echoed by Mr. Barbecue-Smith, though his proclamation seemed to fall on mostly indifferent ears.

Jenny, momentarily confused by the conversation, affirmed her English identity, leading to a slight misunderstanding cleared up by Mr. Barbecue-Smith’s elaboration on cricket’s national significance. The discussion then veered towards Mrs. Wimbush’s interest in a new series of articles exploring the afterlife, intriguingly titled “Summer Land and Gehenna,” to which Mr. Barbecue-Smith responded with a poetic appreciation for the name ‘Summer Land.’

Meanwhile, Mary, having chosen Denis as the lesser of two uncertainties between him and Gombauld for his seemingly safer presence despite his potential lack in talent and seriousness, engaged him in a conversation about his poetry. Denis, displaying little interest in morning chit-chat or diving into his creative endeavors in the absence of his typewriter, was more keen on eavesdropping on Mr. Scogan’s end-of-the-table discourse on dealing with the Church, showing the breakfast table as a microcosm of the house’s diverse and colorful personalities, each wrapped in their thoughts and projects, yet connected by the peculiar ambiance of Crome.