United States or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Ventnor rubbed his hands: "Ye-es," he said, "just giving up a warm man. Young Pillin's a lucky fellow only son. So you met him at old Mr. Heythorp's. I know him too relation of yours, I believe." "Our dear Guardy such a wonderful man." Mr. Ventnor echoed: "Wonderful regular old Roman." "Oh! but he's so kind!" Mrs. Larne lifted the white stuff: "Look what he's given this naughty gairl!" Mr.
Larne is very kind to me." "No doubt. But don't try to pick the flowers." Thoroughly upset, Bob Pillin preserved a dogged silence. This fortnight, since he had first met Phyllis in old Heythorp's hall, had been the most singular of his existence up to now.
I don't know what Ernest will think " "Ernest be d -d." "I do wish, Father, you wouldn't swear." Old Heythorp's rage found vent in a sort of rumble. How the devil had he gone on all these years in the same house with that woman, dining with her day after day! But the servant had come back now, and putting down his fork he said: "Help me up!"
In the most dismal circumstances she enjoyed a buoyancy bordering on the indecent; which always amused old Heythorp's cynicism. And this chance of getting six thousand pounds settled on them at a stroke had seemed to him nothing but heaven-sent.
Favoured by these circumstances, and the perception that Ventnor was an agreeable fellow, Bob Pillin yielded to his secret itch to get near the subject of his affections. "Do you happen," he said airily, "to know a Mrs. Larne relative of old Heythorp's rather a handsome woman-she writes stories." Mr. Ventnor shook his head.
Mr. Ventnor sat in an armchair on the opposite side of the fire; and, finding a kind of somnolence creeping over him, pinched himself. He wanted all his wits about him. The old man was speaking in that extinct voice of his, and Mr. Ventnor said rather pettishly: "Beg pardon, I don't get you." Old Heythorp's voice swelled with sudden force: "Your letters are Greek to me."
A closer scrutiny than Bob Pillin's would have seen that he also moved his ears. "Of old Heythorp's? Didn't know he had any, except his daughter, and that son of his in the Admiralty." Bob Pillin felt the glow of his secret hobby spreading within him. "She is, though lives rather out of town; got a son and daughter. I thought you might know her stories clever woman." Mr. Ventnor smiled.
There were heavily gleaming oil paintings on the walls, a heavy old brass chandelier without candles, heavy dark red curtains, and an indefinable scent of burnt acorns, coffee, cigars, and old man. He became conscious of a candescent spot on the far side of the hearth, where the light fell on old Heythorp's thick white hair. "Mr. Ventnor, sir." The candescent spot moved. A voice said: "Sit down."
Scrivens young Pillin had said! But Crow & Donkin, not Scriven & Coles, were old Heythorp's solicitors. What could that mean, save that the old man wanted to cover the tracks of a secret commission, and had handled the matter through solicitors who did not know the state of his affairs! But why Pillin's solicitors? With this sale just going through, it must look deuced fishy to them too.
"So she's a relative of old Heythorp's," he said. "He's a very old friend of your father's. He ought to go bankrupt, you know." To Bob Pillin, glowing with passion and Madeira, the idea of bankruptcy seemed discreditable in connection with a relative of Phyllis. Besides, the old boy was far from that! Had he not just made this settlement on Mrs. Larne? And he said: "I think you're mistaken.
Word Of The Day