Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 25, 2025
George now thought impatiently that a great fuss was being made about a trifle, and that a matter much more important deserved attention. His ear caught a violent movement. The old man came out of the parlour, and, instead of taking his hat and rushing off to find the enchantress, he walked slowly and heavily upstairs, preceded by his immense shadow thrown from the hall-lamp.
In front of the shop-window, are ranged some half-dozen high-backed chairs, with spinal complaints and wasted legs; a corner cupboard; two or three very dark mahogany tables with flaps like mathematical problems; some pickle-jars, some surgeons’ ditto, with gilt labels and without stoppers; an unframed portrait of some lady who flourished about the beginning of the thirteenth century, by an artist who never flourished at all; an incalculable host of miscellanies of every description, including bottles and cabinets, rags and bones, fenders and street-door knockers, fire-irons, wearing apparel and bedding, a hall-lamp, and a room-door.
She stood at the parlour door, the light of the hall-lamp throwing her features into sharp relief. "Wait," she said softly. I waited. "You think bad of me?" she said again. "Why, what have I done?" "No!" I said. "You wrong us. We should not dare ..." "Surely," she replied, looking at me in an odd, arch manner. "So I was thinking. Good night. It is Christmas. I do not think bad of you. Good night."
The hall-lamp was lit, and we could discern each other's faces as he opened the door. Mine may have been a study, but I am sure his was. He had not expected to be confronted by an elderly lady at that hour of night. "Well!" he dryly ejaculated, "I am sensible of the honor, Miss Butterworth." But he did not ask me in.
We hurried out from the trees to the open lawn beyond crossed it rapidly; and without another word passing between us, reached the house. In the light of the hall-lamp Laura looked at me, with white cheeks and startled eyes. "I am half dead with fear," she said. "Who could it have been?" "We will try to guess to-morrow," I replied.
Chancing to pass through the hall, I found Paulina sitting alone on the lowest step of the staircase, her eyes fixed on the glossy panels of the dining-room door, where the reflection of the hall-lamp was shining; her little brow knit in anxious, meditation. "What are you thinking about, Polly?" "Nothing particular; only I wish that door was clear glass that I might see through it.
It was dark outside, but the hall-lamp was alight." "Kindly look at this" here a small object was passed across to the witness. "It is a trinket that Mr. Bellingham is stated to have carried suspended from his watch-guard. Can you remember if he was wearing it in that manner when he came to the house?" "No, he was not." "You are sure of that?" "Quite sure." "Thank you.
Then she busily lighted the little hall-lamp with his matches, and hurried down, taking the matches, to the kitchen. After a few moments George followed her; he was obliged to follow her. She had removed her coat; it lay on the sole chair. The hat and blouse which she wore seemed very vivid in the kitchen vestiges of past glorious episodes in concert-halls and hansoms.
She turned and faced him with the light of the hall-lamp full upon her. She was smiling and self-confident. "I thought," he said, looking at her closely, "as I stood behind you, that there were tears in your eyes." She went past him into the hall to meet Sep and his father, who were already on the threshold. "It must have been the firelight," she said to Barebone as she passed him.
"The best of women," ran a saying of Batty Langton's, "if you watch 'em, are always practising; even the youngest, as a kitten plays with a leaf." They stood in silence, waiting for the chair to overtake them. "Tatty, you are a heroine!" Miss Quiney, unwinding a shawl from her head under the hall-lamp, released herself from Ruth's embrace. Her nerve had been strained and needed a recoil.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking