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"Essie's nice clean, fresh, country notions were scouted by the London housemaid," she said. "I am happy to say the child held her own, though the woman presumed outrageously on her gentleness, and neither of the two had any notion how to get rid of her." "Arcadia had no housemaids," said Fordham, rallying.
"Essie's mighty well liked here," Mrs. Terriberry returned quickly. "Popularity is a mighty uncertain asset in a small town." "Don't forget that yourself, Doc," returned Mrs. Terriberry, nettled by her tone. Dr. Harpe laughed good-naturedly; she had no desire to antagonize Mrs. Terriberry. She watched the Dago Duke hold up a warning finger as Essie placed the heavy hotel dishes before him.
He smiled a little when Aunt Martha, hoping to move him, dwelt earnestly on her dear Essie's views of life, her plans of usefulness, and her desire above all things to do some good in the world. It was all right, he said, just what he should expect from a girl brought up by a good woman like Aunt Martha.
Stephen Jannan's handsome countenance was fixed and pale; one hand lay on the table, empty and still. In the silence between Schimpf's insistent periods Jasper Penny could hear Essie's sobbing inspirations; he was unable to keep his gaze from her countenance, jelly-like and robbed of every trace of human dignity.
"Yet if you took away our faith, what would there be to hinder us from being like my poor Janet?" "Heaven forbid that I should take away any one's honest faith; above all, yours or Essie's." "Except by showing that you think it just good enough for us." "How can I help it, any more than I can help that Belforest was left to Elvira? Wishes and belief are two different things."
She knew how high he stood both as to character and capabilities in the opinion of Essie's father, and though he had not liked the idea of his daughter's marriage with the minister, she thought it possible that he might not object seriously a second time, should Essie indeed prefer the new aspirant to her favour.
The poor little thing was always whining and fretting whenever she was not in Essie's arms or the Monk's, till the Monk declared she had a spine, and he and mother gave uncle and aunt no peace till they brought her here for advice, and sure enough her poor little spine is all wrong, and will never be good for anything without a regular course of watching and treatment.
God, why hadn't he recognized the desperation in Essie's quivering face! It would have been already too late, he added in thought; it went back, back A knock sounded discreetly on the door: and, opening it, he saw a young man, remembered as a law student in Stephen's office. "They are ready for you, sir, at the City Hall," he stated, in an over-emphasized, professional calm.
In the silence of the sitting room Jasper Penny heard diverse and yet mingled inner voices: Essie's younger, exuberant periods, her joy at presents of gold and jewelled trifles; changing, rising shrilly, to her last imploring sobs, her frantic embrace of the man that, beyond any doubt, she had herself killed.
It appeared that after seeing wifey off for the seashore he felt the joy of bachelor freedom so strongly that he dropped in to see Essie's mother, who gave him a glass of sub rosa port, which so warmed his heart that he tried to embrace her. Grandma was only thirty-four and would have been pretty except for gaps in the front ranks of her teeth.
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