Splendors and Glooms Chapter 30 Summary

Servants' Talk

  • When Lizzie Rose wakes up from a nap, she's startled to find that she is in a beautiful room and in a gorgeously sumptuous bed. Well, this is different.
  • She's amazed by how nice everything is and how the servants immediately fed and bathed the children—even if they grumbled about it the whole time. She can't believe she and Parsefall were each given separate rooms.
  • Lizzie Rose can't find her clothes anywhere—the servants took them away—so she walks over to the wardrobe to find something to wear. There are a bunch of very nice fabrics and furs inside.
  • She decides on a fur coat and then heads downstairs in order to take Ruby outside before the dog has an accident indoors.
  • Just as she's about to open the kitchen door, though, Lizzie Rose hears the servants talking, so she stops to eavesdrop.
  • She can hear them complaining about how they've spent all of these years looking after Madama and now she's going to throw away her fortune on a couple of dirty little beggars. They also mention something about having to wait on foreigners and orphans and how distasteful they find it. Man, no one is cool with foreigners in this book. Xenophobic much?
  • Lizzie Rose doesn't want to hear them talking behind her back anymore so she sweeps through the kitchen with Ruby behind her. Then, they head outside so Ruby can do her business.
  • Meanwhile, Grisini is still down at the gatehouse, out of view, so the children won't know he's there. He's still weak, but when he hears Ruby's bark, he smiles. Finally, the children are here.