United States or Norway ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Of course, if the worst came to the worst, she must do it. Meanwhile, might not a substitute be found somebody in whom the act would seem not one of vengeance, but of virtue? Ah! she had it: Lady Honoria! Who could be better for such a purpose than the cruelly injured wife? But then how should she communicate the facts to her ladyship without involving herself?
Honoria sped down the avenue, and Taffy headed for the Parsonage, across the towans. Ordinarily this road at night would have been full of terrors for him; but now the fear at his heels kept him going, while his heart thumped on his ribs. He was just beginning to feel secure, when he blundered against a dark figure which seemed to rise straight out of the night. "Hullo!" Blessed voice!
There the young man waited a moment. He looked not at her but straight before him. "Honoria," he said suddenly, almost harshly, "you and Helen de Vallorbes used to be great friends. For more than a year I have held no communication with her, except through my lawyers. Can you tell me anything about her?" Miss St. Quentin hesitated.
Three days she passed in this uncertainty what she had to expect; blaming those fears which had deferred an explanation, and tormented by Lady Honoria, whose raillery and levity now grew very unseasonable. Fidel, the favourite spaniel, was almost her only consolation, and she pleased herself not inconsiderably by making a friend of the faithful animal.
And then, indeed, the cruel disparity between his stature and her own for tall though she was, he, by right of make and length of arm, should evidently have been by some two or three inches the taller and all the grotesqueness of his deformity, were fully disclosed to Honoria. For the second time that day, her tact, her presence of mind, her ready speech, deserted her.
Neither Honoria, Dalton, nor myself remained long in the gallery. We retired with a select few, and were served in an antechamber, separated from the grand reception-room by an arch, through which, by putting aside a silk curtain, Honoria could see, at a distance, any that entered, as they passed in from the hall. My own position was such that I could look over her shoulder and see as she saw.
Here the younger members of the party were waltzing merrily to the accompaniment of one of Strauss's sweetest waltzes; while the elders sat here and there on camp-stools or fallen logs of trees, and looked on, or indulged in a little agreeable gossip. Honoria Eversleigh made her way unobserved to the marquee, and approached one of the openings less used and less crowded than the others.
He pursed up his beautiful mouth, he carried his head on one side with the liveliest effect of provocation, as he held the young lady's hand while bidding her farewell. "Out of my heart I hope you will be very happy," he said. "I shall never be anything but Honoria St. Quentin," she answered rather hastily. Then she softened, forgiving him.
Lancelot started: it was a favourite dictum of his in Carlyle's works. 'Where did you get that thought, my friend' 'By seeing, sir. 'But what has that to do with Miss Honoria? 'She is an angel of holiness herself, sir; and, therefore, she goes on without blushing or suspecting, where our blood would boil again. She sees people in want, and thinks it must be so, and pities them and relieves them.
"Two hundred pounds, nineteen shillings and sevenpence, minus ninety-seven pounds rent of chambers and clerk," said Lady Honoria, with a disparaging accent on the sevenpence. "I shall double it next year, and double that again the next, and so on. I work from morning till night to get on, that you may have what you live for," he said bitterly.
Word Of The Day