United States or Croatia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Such a ruffian would be capable of making a disturbance for much less offence than an explanation and refusal would have given him." "Lucian," said Lydia, in a tone of gentle admonition, "I asked to be introduced to my tenant, for whose respectability you had vouched by letting the Warren Lodge to him." Lucian reddened. "How does Lord Worthington explain Mr. Byron's appearance at Mrs. Hoskyn's?"
Alice closed her lips proudly and began to be defiant. Then a reminiscence, which had never before failed to rouse indignation in her, made her laugh. She recalled the scandalous spectacle of Lucian's formal perpendicularity overbalanced and doubled up into Mrs. Hoskyn's gilded arm-chair in illustration of the prize-fighter's theory of effort defeating itself.
At last the Colonial Office, which had charge of him, was at its wit's end to devise entertainments to keep him in good-humor until the appointed time for his departure. On the Tuesday following Mrs. Hoskyn's reception, Lucian Webber called at his cousin's house in Regent's Park, and said, in the course of a conversation with the two ladies there, "The Colonial Office has had an idea.
"Oh, hang the letter!" said Lord Worthington. "It's Mrs. Hoskyn's writing an invitation, or some such rot. Here; let's see it." "Campden Hill Road, Saturday. "My dear Lord Worthington, I have not forgotten my promise to obtain for you a near view of the famous Mrs. Herbert 'Madame Simplicita, as you call her.
Hoskyn's after the lecture. Meanwhile they went to Sydenham, where Alice went through the Crystal Palace with provincial curiosity, and Lydia answered her questions encyclopedically. In the afternoon there was a concert, at which a band played several long pieces of music, which Lydia seemed to enjoy, though she found fault with the performers.
"I should not like to miss the opportunity of going to Mrs. Hoskyn's. People so often ask me whether I have been there, and whether I know this, that, and the other celebrated person, that I feel quite embarrassed by my rustic ignorance." "Because," pursued Lydia, "I had intended not to go until after the lecture.
Hold on a bit I can't talk I shall get my second wind presently, and then " Cashel stopped a moment to pant, and then asked, "Why are you going to give me up?" Lydia ranged her wits in battle array, and replied, "Do you remember our conversation at Mrs. Hoskyn's?" "Yes." "You admitted then that if the nature of your occupation became known to me our acquaintance should cease.
I might as well set up to be a friend of his lordship because I, after a manner of speaking, know him. Byron is in the ring, sir. A common prize-fighter!" Lucian, recalling what had passed at Mrs. Hoskyn's, and Lord Worthington's sporting habits, believed the assertion at once. But he made a faint effort to resist conviction. "Are you sure of this, Bashville?" he said.
Alice, able to detect neither the faults in the execution nor the beauty of the music, did as she saw the others do pretended to be pleased and applauded decorously. Madame Szczymplica, whom she expected to meet at Mrs. Hoskyn's, appeared, and played a fantasia for pianoforte and orchestra by the famous Jack, another of Mrs. Hoskyn's circle.
"You shall have a celebrity a real one none of your mouldy old Germans if I can only get him to come. If any of her people don't like him they can tell him so. Eh, Bedford?" Next evening, Lydia and Alice reached Mrs. Hoskyn's house in Campden Hill Road a few minutes before ten o'clock. They found Lord Worthington in the front garden, smoking and chatting with Mr. Hoskyn.
Word Of The Day