FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79  
80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   >>   >|  
ng-room, crowded with rococo furniture and many knick-knacks, where he waited more or less impatiently for nearly twenty minutes. Then Mrs. Phillimore swept into the room, elaborately gowned for her drive in the park, dispersing perfumes in all directions and bestowing a dazzling smile upon him. "I felt very much inclined not to see you at all," she declared. "How dared you keep away from me all this time? You haven't been near me since I moved in here. What do you think of my little house?" "Charming!" he declared. "Every one likes it," she remarked. "Such a time I had choosing the furniture. Hester wouldn't help with a single thing. You know that she has left me?" "I understood that she had gone to Mr. Mannering as secretary," he answered. "She has done typing for him for some time, hasn't she?" Mrs. Phillimore nodded. "Worships him, the little fool!" she remarked. "I must admit I detest clever men. You are all so dull, and such scheming brutes, too." Borrowdean smiled. A certain rough-and-ready humour about this woman always appealed to him. He looked around. "You seem to have done very nicely with that little offering," he said. "Oh, ready money goes a long way," she declared, carelessly. "And when it is spent?" he asked. "Five thousand pounds is not an inexhaustible sum." "By the time it is spent," she answered, "your party will be in, and I suppose you will make Lawrence something." Borrowdean regarded the woman thoughtfully. "Has it ever occurred to you," he asked, "that the time is likely to come when Mannering might want his money for himself? He might want to marry, for instance." She laughed mirthlessly, but without a shade of uneasiness. "You don't know Lawrence," she declared, scornfully. "He'd never do that whilst I was alive." "I am not so sure," Borrowdean answered, calmly. "Between ourselves, I cannot see that your claim upon him amounts to very much." "Then you're a fool!" she declared, brusquely. "No, I'm not," Borrowdean assured her, blandly. "Now I fancy that I could tell you something which would surprise you very much." "Has he been making love to any one?" she asked, quickly. "Something of the sort," he admitted. "Mannering is quixotic, of course, and that hermit life of his down in Norfolk has made him more so. Now he has come back again into the world it is just possible that he may see things differently. I flatter myself that I am a man of common se
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79  
80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
declared
 

Borrowdean

 

Mannering

 

answered

 

Lawrence

 

remarked

 

Phillimore

 

furniture

 

occurred

 

thoughtfully


regarded
 

laughed

 
mirthlessly
 

instance

 

pounds

 

inexhaustible

 

thousand

 

common

 

suppose

 

things


flatter

 
differently
 

amounts

 

brusquely

 
quickly
 

surprise

 

making

 
assured
 

blandly

 

Between


Something

 

scornfully

 

hermit

 

uneasiness

 

admitted

 

calmly

 

quixotic

 

whilst

 

Norfolk

 
inclined

Charming

 
dazzling
 
bestowing
 

waited

 

knacks

 

crowded

 

rococo

 

impatiently

 

dispersing

 

perfumes