A Cup of Tea by Katherine Mansfield

687 Words3 Pages
The story, “A Cup of Tea” tells us how people show generosity to people whom they consider their inferior. People do so partly to show off their superiority to the poorer beings. Generosity in most cases is only to satisfy one’s ego. The story further shows how generosity and benevolence evaporates when the object of pity goes against one’s self interest, ego and vanity. Rosemary Fell was very rich. Though she was not very pretty, she made up for it as she lived in extreme style and fashion. One cold night, after coming out of a shop of fancy antiques, she came across a girl by the name of Miss Smith. The poor girl wanted the price of a cup of tea from Rosemary. It seemed to be a very romantic adventure for Rosemary like those events that take place in novelos or on the stage. She thought of doing something generous. She asked the girl to come home and take tea with her. The poor girl was startled at it. She did not believe Rosemary at first. She even suspected that Rosemary might hand her over to the police. But at last Rosemary took her home. All the generous impulses worked in Rosemary. She wanted to show that those nice things that happened in novels and fairy tales about godmothers and generous rich people did really happen in real life also. She felt the unity in all of all women too. She thought it was a duty of a woman to help another woman. She took the girl upstairs to her bed room. The girl was very nervous at the unexpected turn of things. But Rosemary was all encouragement. She even helped her take off her clothes. She asked her maid servant to bring her some brandy and then tea. The poor girl was too hungry. She declared that she would faint if she did not take some tea at once. Rosemary gave her tea, sandwiches, and bread and butter. The meal had a very good effect on the girl. She looked much better. Now it was the turn of Rosemary to enquire about

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