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It was on his stuffy shelves that poor Benjamin's coat had lain compressed and packed away when it might have had a beautiful airing in the grounds of the Crystal Palace. It was from his stuffy shelves that Esther's mother had redeemed it a day after the fair soon to be herself compressed and packed away in a pauper's coffin, awaiting in silence whatsoever Redemption might be.
"Your husband!" said the woman, glancing insolently at Esther's figure. "Are you sure he is your husband?" The hot blood suffused the temples of the indignant wife as she said, "This apartment, madam, I believe is mine?" "Oh, certainly, as long as you can pay for it;" and rudely slamming the door, the landlady departed.
"What you've got on don't look as if it could come to much damage. Come, now, set to." The housemaids burst into loud laughter, and then a sullen look of dogged obstinacy passed over and settled on Esther's face, even to the point of visibly darkening the white and rose complexion.
No sooner said than done; she did not wait until Mary appeared, but bustled off to meet her, to enlist the cook's sympathy, and put out the promised delicacies, and when the table was set she returned to the room and seated herself, smilingly, in Esther's place. "I am going to stay with you this afternoon," she said brightly. "Draw up your chairs, dears, and let us be jovial.
"You child of nature, don't you know that children of nature like you always grow wild and need no cultivation, but that we artificial flowers can't live without it?" "I don't know how to cultivate," answered Catherine; "it is Esther you are thinking about." Having announced this self-evident fact, Catherine walked off and left him to quiet Esther's alarms as he could.
No sooner was Mary alone than she fastened the door, and put the shutters up against the window, which had all this time remained shaded only by the curtains hastily drawn together on Esther's entrance, and the lighting of the candle. She did all this with the same compressed lips, and the same stony look that her face had assumed on the first examination of the paper.
You will often see in Paris such vehement promenaders, real gendarmes watching a recalcitrant National Guardsman, bailiffs taking steps to effect an arrest, creditors planning a trick on the debtor who has shut himself in, lovers, or jealous and suspicious husbands, or friends doing sentry for a friend; but rarely do you meet a face portending such coarse and fierce thoughts as animated that of the gloomy and powerful man who paced to and fro under Mademoiselle Esther's windows with the brooding haste of a bear in its cage.
But it does mean so much to me to feel sure of her affection." Polly frowned in a slightly puzzled fashion. Esther's adoration even of her beloved Betty seemed a little unnatural. Why should one girl care so much about the attitude of another one? She loved Betty herself, of course, and Betty loved her. Yet she doubted very much if either one worried over the emotions of the other.
Esther breathed. "Of course," said Madame Beattie carelessly. "Jeff and I were quite friends in old times. I was glad I went. It cheered him up." "Did he " Esther paused. "Ask for you?" supplied Madame Beattie pleasantly. "Not a word." Here Esther's curiosity did whip her on. She had to ask: "How does he look?" "Oh, youngish," said Madame. "Rather flabby. Obstinate. Ugly, too." "Ugly?
She regarded Allan for a long time very solemnly, until he won her heart by admiring Flossy; then she condescended to converse with him. "Are you Esther's brother, really?" "Yes, Miss Florence I believe that is your name." "Florence Emmeline Lucas," she repeated glibly. "I'm Flurry for short; nobody calls me Florence except father sometimes.
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