Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 21, 2025
"I say, papa will miss the train," replied Magdalen, taking Miss Garth's hint with her customary quickness. "The last thing he attends to at Grailsea will be the business that brings him there. Whenever he has business to do, he always puts it off to the last moment, doesn't he, mamma?" The question roused her mother exactly as Magdalen had intended it should.
"Serious to all in this house." Miss Garth took one step nearer to him took one steady look at his face. She turned cold in the summer heat. "Stop!" she said, with a sudden distrust, and glanced aside anxiously at the door of the morning-room. It was safely closed. "Tell me the worst; and don't speak loud. There has been an accident. Where?" "On the railway. Close to Grailsea Station."
That topic had led them, next, to his business errand at Grailsea an errand of kindness, as usual; undertaken for the benefit of the miller, who had been his old farm-servant, and who was now hard pressed by serious pecuniary difficulties. From this they had glided insensibly into a subject often repeated among them, and never exhausted by repetition the praise of Mr. Vanstone himself.
"No time for driving; I must do it by railway. If I go at once, I shall catch the down train at our station, and get on to Grailsea. Take care of the letter, Norah. I won't keep dinner waiting; if the return train doesn't suit, I'll borrow a gig and get back in that way." As he took up his hat, Magdalen appeared at the door, returning from her interview with Frank.
The hurry of her father's movements attracted her attention; and she asked him where he was going. "To Grailsea," replied Mr. Vanstone. "Your business, Miss Magdalen, has got in the way of mine and mine must give way to it." He spoke those parting words in his old hearty manner; and left them, with the old characteristic flourish of his trusty stick. "My business!" said Magdalen.
Vanstone, are you?" "Certainly not. I am Miss Garth. Why do you ask the question?" "I am employed in the clerk's office at Grailsea Station " "Yes?" "I am sent here " He stopped again. His wandering eyes looked down at the mat, and his restless hands wrung his cap harder and harder. He moistened his dry lips, and tried once more. "I am sent here on a very serious errand." "Serious to me?"
"The up-train to London?" "No: the down-train at one-fifty " "God Almighty help us! The train Mr. Vanstone traveled by to Grailsea?" "The same. I was sent here by the up-train; the line was just cleared in time for it. They wouldn't write they said I must see 'Miss Garth, and tell her. There are seven passengers badly hurt; and two "
Norah looked appealingly to Miss Garth, who at once led the conversation back to the more trivial subject of Mr. Vanstone's return. "We have all been wondering," she said, with a significant look at Magdalen, "whether your father will leave Grailsea in time to catch the train or whether he will miss it and be obliged to drive back. What do you say?"
He consulted his pocketbook and read over one of the entries, with a look of annoyance. "Grailsea Mill, three o'clock, Saturday. Just the time when Pendril will be here; and I must be at home to see him. How can I manage it? Monday will be too late for my business at Grailsea. I'll go to-day, instead; and take my chance of catching the miller at his dinner-time." He looked at his watch.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking