United States or Papua New Guinea ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Mavis's mind was made up. She went to her bedroom, where, with infinite deliberation, she dressed for going out. "Mr Harold Devitt!" she said, when she came upon him waiting on his tricycle by the foolish little monument raised to the memory of one of Alfred the Great's victories over invading Danes. The man raised his hat, while he looked intently at Mavis.
"Mr Devitt must be in the drawing-room," said Hayter, as he reappeared to walk up the stairs. Mavis, scarcely knowing what she was doing, followed the man up the heavily carpeted stairs, which did not betray her footfalls. The man opened the door of the drawing-room. As she followed close on his heels, she heard a terrific peal at the front door bell.
"I'd have broken off the marriage, even at the last moment, for Charles's share in it, but for the terrible scandal which would have been caused." "Well, well; it's all over and done with now," sighed Devitt. "I'm not so sure; one never knows what an abandoned girl, as Miss Keeves has proved herself to be, is capable of!" "True!" remarked Miss Spraggs. "Come! come!" said Devitt.
They talked for two or three minutes longer, when, the train being on the point of starting, Devitt said: "Send me your address and I'll see you have your old work again." Mavis thanked him. "Just met Miss Toombs?" he asked. "She's been staying with me. Thank you so much." Mavis hurried from the man's carriage to that containing her friend, who was standing anxiously by the window.
"This is our best chance of a quiet talk, so I'll come to the point at once," began Mrs Devitt. "By all means," said Mavis, as Miss Spraggs took up a book and pretended to be interested in its contents. "How soon do you require a situation?" "At once." "Has Miss Mee applied to anyone else in the neighbourhood on your account?" "Not that I'm aware of."
"I can well believe it to look at you. Why didn't you write?" "I didn't like to. It's good of you to do what you've done." Mr Devitt appeared to think for a few moments before saying: "I'm sorry I can't do more; but one isn't always in a position to do exactly what one would like." "Quite so," assented the girl.
She had been to Vincent Square to look up a late paying guest of her aunt's, who had taken with her some of the household linen by mistake. Upon her setting out for home, she had met with the uncanny adventure from which Mavis' timely arrival had released her. Directly Mavis reached home, she had written to Mr Devitt. Four days passed, during which she heard nothing in reply.
With the exception of one incident, she had resolved to forget as much as possible of her existence since she had left Brandenburg College; also, to see what happiness she could wrest from life in the capacity of clerk in the Melkbridge boot manufactory, a position she owed to her long delayed appeal to Mr Devitt for employment.
"And we all but had her in the house," urged Mrs Devitt, much irritated at her husband's tacit support of the girl. "Anyway, she's far away from us now," said Devitt. "Where has she gone?" asked Miss Spraggs. "Somewhere in Dorsetshire," Devitt informed her. "If she hadn't gone, I should have made it my duty to urge her to leave Melkbridge," remarked Mrs Devitt.
Although grieved beyond measure that the girl had married his dearly loved boy, he realised that with Harold's ignorance of women he might have done infinitely worse. "What are you going to do?" asked Mrs Devitt of her husband in the seclusion of their bedroom. "Try and make the best of it. After all, she's a lady." "What! You're not going to try and have the marriage annulled?"
Word Of The Day