United States or Yemen ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the Rat, who was very greasy with buttered toast, sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it might be. There was a sound of much stamping in the hall, and presently Billy returned in front of the Otter, who threw himself on the Rat with an embrace and a shout of affectionate greeting. "Get off!" spluttered the Rat, with his mouth full.
And just as we sensitively felt this exhaustion and this need, we heard a suggestive voice calling us from the front-door of the mansion-house of Damville, and "Supper" was the cry. A call to the table may quell and may awaken romance.
One entering had, moreover, to turn out, as it were, for the trees, and take a circuitous route around them to the right to the front-door path, which was quite slippery with a film of green moss. There had been, years ago, a gap betwixt the trees a gate's width but now none could enter unless the branches were lopped, and Eben Merritt would not allow that.
"Certainly," said he, fully understanding what she meant; and bowing low as he opened first the study-door, then the front-door, then the garden-gate. And then Lady Arabella stalked off, not without full observation from Mrs Yates Umbleby and her friend Miss Gushing, who lived close by. Miss Thorne Goes on a Visit And now began the unpleasant things at Greshamsbury of which we have here told.
The poor girl must be quite overdone, he thought to himself; she was far too kind, too tender-hearted to go about amongst the village people and witness all their woes; she was not strong enough to do such work he must speak to Flossy about it. And, while he was thus thinking, the carriage turned in at the park gates and presently halted at the great front-door.
But as that front-door closed behind me I had the instant sense of having slipped away from the harsh light of the ordinary and contemporary into the dimness of an odd, august past. Here, in this dark hall, the past was the present. Here loomed vivid and vital on the walls those women of Rossetti whom I had known but as shades.
At last there came the sound of the front-door of the villa opening, shutting; and then those made by Pargeter's quick, short footsteps striking the marble floor of the hall, and echoing through the silent house. Vanderlyn stopped short in his restless pacing. He turned and waited. The door was flung open, and Pargeter came in.
"It wouldn't have done any good." There was a long pause. "Were you alone in the house, dear?" He looked up, angry. "Of course I was alone in the house." She sat silent and continued to gaze at him with her tender, wounded eyes. Outside in the passage the front-door bell rang. She rose in perturbation. "That's them. Do you want to see them?" "I don't care whether I see them or not."
The front-door bell clanged loudly, and the Rat, who was very greasy with buttered toast, sent Billy, the smaller hedgehog, to see who it might be. There was a sound of much stamping in the hall, and presently Billy returned in front of the Otter, who threw himself on the Rat with an embrace and a shout of affectionate greeting. 'Get off! spluttered the Rat, with his mouth full.
The man turned to go, but he had not reached the end of the hall when the front-door bell rang again. He went soft-footed to answer it. Scott glanced over his shoulder as the door opened, and heard his own name. "Is Mr. Studley here?" a man's voice asked. "Yes, sir. Just here, sir," came the answer, and Scott rose with a weary gesture. "Oh, here you are!" Airily Guy Bathurst advanced to meet him.
Word Of The Day