Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 12, 2025
It seemed to him, in that first hour of misery, that he had betrayed his friend anew. When, that afternoon, he reached home earlier than usual, Alexa's drawing-room was full of a gayety that overflowed to the stairs.
As to Alexa's words, they were simply the conventional utterance of the "nice" woman on a question already decided for her by other "nice" women. She had said the proper thing as mechanically as she would have put on the appropriate gown or written the correct form of dinner-invitation.
In this regard it had come to be understood between them that the produce of the poultry-yard was Alexa's own; and to some little store she had thus gathered she mainly trusted for the requirements of her invalid. To this her father could not object, though he did not like it; he felt what was hers to be his more than he felt what was his to be hers.
"You shall do just as Dawtie and you please. Where Dawtie is, there will be room for you!" Already Alexa's pain had grown quite bearable. Dawtie needed no persuading. She was so rich in the possession of Andrew that she could go a hundred years without seeing him, she said. It was only that he would come and see her, instead of her going to see him!
Glennard?" he heard her ask; and, in reply to Alexa's vague interrogation "Why, the 'Aubyn Letters' it's the only book people are talking of this week." Mrs. Dresham immediately saw her advantage. "You HAVEN'T read them? How very extraordinary! As Mrs. Armiger says, the book's in the air; one breathes it in like the influenza." Glennard sat motionless, watching his wife.
He had never been anxious on the point, but was very glad that ignorance had not drawn him into an evil connection. Dawtie took the letter with her to read at her leisure. Unable, however, to understand something Sandy said concerning Mr. Crawford's business, she asked a question or two of her mistress, which led to questions on Alexa's part.
He wondered why his wife had wanted to drag him on such a senseless expedition.... He hated Flamel's crowd and what business had Flamel himself to interfere in that way, standing up for the publication of the letters as though Glennard needed his defence?... Glennard turned his head and saw that Flamel had drawn a seat to Alexa's elbow and was speaking to her in a low tone.
Flamel, always at his best in Alexa's presence, gave her the kind of attention which is like a beaconing light thrown on the speaker's words: his answers seemed to bring out a latent significance in her phrases, as the sculptor draws his statue from the block.
What he had called his beliefs were as worthy of the name as those of most people, but whether he was better or worse without them hardly interests me, and my philanthropy will scarce serve to make me glad that he was more comfortable. As they talked, old times came up, and they drew a little nearer, until at last a gentle spring of rose-colored interest began a feeble flow in Alexa's mind.
Flamel suffered his discourse with the bland inattention that we accord to the affairs of someone else's suburb, and they reached the shelter of Alexa's tea-table without a perceptible turn toward the dreaded topic. The dinner passed off safely.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking