United States or Republic of the Congo ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Hitherto there had hardly been a word spoken. Miss Stanbury had muttered something as she was curtseying, and Barty Burgess had made some return. Then she began: "Mr. Burgess," she said, "I am indebted to you for your complaisance in coming here at my request." To this he bowed again.
"There was a clergyman there last night." "No doubt, and she'll play him off against you, and you against him; and then she'll throw you both over. I know her." "She has got a right to do what she likes with her own, Uncle Barty." "And how did she get it? Never mind. I'm not going to set you against her, if you're her favourite for the moment. She has a niece with her there, hasn't she?"
On the morning after his departure, she had become so much worse that she was compelled to take to her bed, and despatch her only attendant for a doctor. That attendant was Barty Burt, who had come down from Westminster with Woodburn, and had been engaged by the latter to remain with his mother during his absence.
More than once Barty turned to Larry as if he were about to speak, and then turned away; they came to the Mount Music entrance, and as the car turned in through the gateway, Barty suddenly put his bony and pallid hand on Larry's knee. "There's a thing no one here knows but myself, and I didn't hear it till two days ago, but I can't bear the weight of it any longer.
'We'll all end up by paying a visit to that gentleman, but while we are on earth we may as well be pleasant. Seen your wife lately? This apparently careless inquiry caused Mr Villiers to jump suddenly out of his seat, much to the astonishment of Barty, who did not know for what reason he was standing up.
A memory of a ferocious denunciation of the Gaelic League by her father came to her; she wondered what Barty would do if she offered him one of the profane imitations of the Major that had earned for her the laurels of the schoolroom. "Oh, I'm quite sure I mightn't become a Gaelic Leaguer!" she repeated, beginning to laugh, while samples of her father's rhetoric welled up in her mind.
Christian was sitting on the floor by the fireplace in the hall, in the last of the daylight, examining and burning the contents of a drawer full of miscellaneous papers, as the visitor made his unexpected entrance from the back, and Barty, recognising his own improbability and unsuitability on such a day and at such a time, fell to confused apologies that were as incoherent, and seemed as unlikely ever to end, as the buzzing of an imprisoned bee on the window-pane.
"And yet," said Barnabas, "I think Barnabas Barty is a better man than Barnabas Beverley, and a more worthy lover; indeed I know he is. And, as Barnabas Barty, I bid your Grace good-by!" "Where are you going?" "To the village inn, madam, my proper place, it seems. But to-morrow morning, unless you have told Cleone, I shall. And now, if your Grace will have the kindness to send my servant to me "
Tishy was accompanist, and sang alto; her mother, who knew nothing of notation, and sang by ear, sang treble; Barty had a supple and pleasing tenor, and the Doctor possessed a solemn bass, deep and dark as a thundercloud, yet mellow as the hum of a hive of honey-bees on a summer morning; a rare voice and a beautiful one, that had its counterpart in the contralto that already, at sixteen and a half, had given Tishy power and distinction among her fellows.
Barty grinned. 'I've seen so much of that "friendship, and nothing more", business, he said, significantly, whereupon Kitty rose to her feet. 'I'm tired, she said, coldly. 'Kindly take me to Mrs Riller. 'I've put my foot into it, thought Jarper, as he led her away. 'I believe she's spoons on Van herself.
Word Of The Day