United States or French Guiana ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In the midst of her embarrassment she felt a secret assurance that she was in luck; that she held a clue; that she had in her grasp something to open Mrs Polsue's eyes in envy. "The first thing," she decided, "is to take this piece of gold to the child's mother, and instanter."
He had succeeded, too. He chuckled, recalling Mrs Polsue's discomfiture; how with a final sniff she had turned and passed out between the ironical files that drew aside for her in the porchway. . . . For a burden had fallen from his heart: his little mistake, just now, weighed as nothing against the assurance that Dr Mant would write a certificate and settle these meddlesome idiots at the Troy Custom-house. . . . Moreover Dr Mant, who passed for a knowledgeable fellow in his profession, had as good as assured him that his leg was nothing to die of; not just yet anyway.
'I know you can't help it, said I, 'but if the Post Office can stop and open suspected circulars, surely it can refuse to help this abomination! 'I've delivered pretty well a score, sir, said he; 'and I wish you or some person would write to the papers and stop it. 'Well, I said, 'it's not for me to ask if you have a guess who sends this sort of thing about? He rubbed his chin for a while and then answered: `No, Parson; nor 'tisn't for me to tell 'ee if I do: but if you should happen to be strollin' down t'wards the Quay, you might take a look at Mrs Polsue's Cochin-China hens.
Because if things are done that you don't approve of, either you sit mum-chance out o' politeness, or else you speak your mind and offend your host and hostess." Mr Hambly was about to interpose, but the Vicar checked him with a quick movement of his hand. "Mrs Polsue's is a real point; and, if she will allow me to say so, she has put it very well.
He gave away little in hard money; but his charities in time and personal service were endless. And the countryside respected him thoroughly: for he was eccentric in the fashion of a true Englishman, and, with all his benevolence, you had to get up early to take him in. Nor was Farmer Best the only one to doubt Mrs Polsue's fitness for her place in the sub-committee.
But, although she had heard him, it happened that Mrs Polsue's mind was working on a widely divergent scent. She also was preoccupied with something that haunted her memory: a paragraph in that morning's newspaper. She, too, had no present intention of unveiling her surmise. "Nonsense!" she said.
Mrs Steele's voice had gathered confidence, with something of real emotion, as it went on; and an approving murmur acknowledged her little speech. Her husband, whose eyes had kindled towards the close, was in the act of throwing her an applausive glance when Mrs Polsue's voice cut the silence sharply.
It must have been a dreadful moment, the laughter turning on a sudden against her. But she stood for a while, and then to the surprise of everyone she lifted her head and smiled with the best. Then she caught old Polsue's eye, who was watching her as only a parson can, and, like a woman, she fixed on him as the man to answer. "I reckon I can trust a daughter o' mine," says she.
Word Of The Day