A Smuggler Tale of the Romney Marsh - Thorndike Russell - Страница 45
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?Now this room is for you, my dear, for my handsome niece from India, you understand? And now I must ask you to change your clothes and get into some
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pretty frock or other, and I must have you to know, my dear, that I have been married twice, and by my first marriage I must tell you, my dear, that I had a daughter, a really beautiful daughter. This was years ago, of course, but she was just about your age as I remember her? By the way, what is your age, my dear??
?About sixteen, or I might be seventeen perhaps,? said Imogene.
?Ah, well, my daughter was nineteen when she died,? went on the old lady. ?She was all I had in the world, for her father had died when she was quite a child. Yes, she was all that I had to love for fifteen years, and when she was taken I was so desperately lonely that in a weak moment I married that foolish Mister Whyllie, who is really very kind-hearted and quite a good man, but oh! how dull! Indeed, my dear, he would never have been in the position he is now if I hadn?t pushed him there. You see, my dear, he hasn?t much brain. Why, he cannot boast a third of my power, but on the whole I am glad that I married
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him, because he has given me such a lot to do helping him deceive other people that he isn?t a born fool. But I really must not talk such a lot, for we have a deal to do, my dear. But I must just explain this: I spent a good deal of money upon pretty frocks for my daughter, and, oh! how sweet she used to look in them. Well worth the money it was, my dear, to see her look so pretty. Now every one of these dresses I have kept, and kept carefully, too. If the sweet child came back to me now, she would find all her things as well cared for, as clean, and as fresh as when she left me, for this was her room (this house belongs to me, my dear, not to that fool downstairs), and in these chests and in that oaken tallboy there I have kept everything that reminds me of my darling. See!? And taking a key from a casket upon the chimney-piece she unlocked the tall oak cupboard, displaying to Imogene?s gaze a sight to make her stand entranced. The daintiest dresses were there, and in the brass-bound coffer at the end of the bed the most costly laces and fine linen, and all kept sweet and pure in a strong scent of
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lavender. From these sacred treasures the old lady made selections, and by the time that the gong had sounded for the three o?clock dinner, instead of the handsome, dashing fisher-girl, there sat before the mirror, having the finishing touches put to her beautiful hair, done in the height of the fashion then existing, a beautiful young girl in a gown of country splendour, jewels glistening in her hair, and a diamond brooch of great beauty clasped into a lace fichu which set off her shapely neck to great advantage.
While she had been dressing the girl the old lady had with great tact got all of Imogene?s history out of her, at least as much of it as she knew, and just before they stepped from the room, as she surveyed her protegee with admiration, she held up her quaint little face and requested Imogene to kiss her, which she did.
?And now, my dear, we will go down to dinner, and the while we are eating I will tell you exactly what we are to do, and,? she added with enthusiasm, ?if
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that squire?s son, whom I regard as a fortunate young fellow, does not marry you?well, I?ll horsewhip him myself, aye, both him and his father, and adopt you as my own daughter, for what a relief it would be to have you in the house to look at, for you know, my dear, you are vastly prettier than my foolish Mister Whyllie,? saying which she tripped lightly down the stairs followed by the dazzling Imogene.
Had Imogene been in reality the old lady?s daughter, returned to her from the dim side of the veil, she could not have been shown more kindly love and attention. Even Mr. Whyllie got a happy time of it, for the little old lady was in the best of tempers, entirely at peace and light-hearted. Indeed at the conclusion of the meal the lawyer found himself pushed into a comfortable chair with a small table at his side upon which stood a fine old bottle of port, and to his utter astonishment his wife standing near with a churchwarden pipe filled with tobacco and a lighted paper spill all ready for him. So he also began to bless the
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coming of his niece from India, wishing that she had been invented sooner and that she was going to remain in the house to the end of the proverbial chapter.
Then Mrs. Whyllie, over a dish of tea with Imogene, unfolded her plan of campaign for the rescue of young Denis, and the manner in which this plan was carried out is set forth in a following chapter.
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Chapter 34
A Military Lady-killer Prepares for Battle
That insufferable coxcomb Captain Tuffton was in the act of sprinkling his lace handkerchief with the scent that old Mrs. Whyllie found so atrociously obnoxious when his valet entered the room with a note. The insufferable one went on with his sprinkling and languidly inquired who the note was from. ?I really cannot say, sir,? returned the valet. ?Cannot say?? repeated the insufferable, lifting his pencilled eyebrows into the higher regions of astonishment. ?Indeed, my good Transome?and you call
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yourself a valet, don?t you now? It is not a bill, I trust, strayed in upon the Sabbath out of cunning, for I have not seen a bill these many years now, and the sight, I feel convinced, might upset my stomach.?
?I think, sir, that there is no valet in Europe so quick to smell out a bill or so nimble at tearing them up as your humble servant.? Transome could be tremendous upon occasions and he certainly was when he added: ?And under your livery, sir, I venture to suggest that my practice of bill nosing has been unlimited.?
?Now, come, my good Transome, you disrespectful dog, I?ll not have you chiding me, upon my soul I won?t, for I have a most damned head on me this forenoon. I generally do get a damned bad head on me o? Sundays. All a-buzz, I declare, and it?s those damned exasperating church bells. I never met anything so persistent in my life. They go on, they go on, and there?s no stopping them, now is there? As plentiful as bills are church bells and just as taxing to the
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nerves. If ever I have to oblige the blasted Parliament by sleeping in it, I shall endeavour to keep awake to vote for the abolishment of church bells.?
?And you might, sir, at the same time do away with bills. It would be most convenient, wouldn?t it, sir??
?Well, I suppose it would. If I ever do get in, which I think extremely unlikely, for which I most heartily thank my Maker, knowing how unutterably bored I should become, but if ever I do get in, I will most certainly abolish bills and bells, and if there should be any other little thing that you think might sensibly be abolished, why, you must jog my memory, Transome, and jog it hard, won?t you, my dear fellow, for you know what a memory I have? Damned bad, upon my soul it is!?
?Ah, sir,? sighed the valet, ?you will become a great orator, a very great orator.?
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?I might, my dear fellow, I really might, although I am positive that I shan?t, because, you see, I know that I shall go most damnably to sleep. I shan?t be able to help myself.?
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