United States or Finland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
It was easy for me to understand Christopherson's state of mind, and without knowing Mrs. Keeting, I saw that she must be a person whose benefactions would be a good deal of a burden. After all, was Mrs. Christopherson so very unhappy?
Would she not be glad of something to read now and then? At this he grew pensive. We discussed the matter, and it was arranged that a box should be packed with select volumes and taken down into Norfolk together with the rest of their luggage. Not even Mrs. Keeting could object to this, and I strongly advised him to take her permission for granted. And so it was done.
And spluttering and growling, he made known what he had just learnt at his aunt's home. On the previous afternoon the Christophersons had been surprised by a visit from their relatives and would-be benefactress, Mrs. Keeting. Keeting spoke loudly as she descended the stairs. 'Impossible! Quite impossible! I couldn't think of it!
'Ay, I'll tell you; I was coming to that. Mrs. Christopherson has relatives well off a fat and selfish lot, as far as I can make out never lifted a finger to help her until now. One of them's a Mrs. Keeting, the widow of some City porpoise, I'm told. Well, this woman has a home down in Norfolk. She never lives there, but a son of hers goes there to fish and shoot now and then.
Well, this is what Mrs. Christopherson tells my aunt, Mrs. Keeting has offered to let her and her husband live down yonder, rent free, and their food provided. She's to be housekeeper, in fact, and keep the place ready for any one who goes down. 'Christopherson, I can see, would rather stay where he is. 'Why, of course, he doesn't know how he'll live without the bookshops.
'Any hour, I said, 'may bring you the reply from Mrs. Keeting. Of course it will be favourable, and the good news 'Too late, I have killed her! That woman won't write. She's one of the vulgar rich, and we offended her pride; and such as she never forgive. He sat down for a moment, but started up again in an agony of mental suffering.
She knocked prepared with some excuse and found the couple side by side, smiling sadly. At once they told her the truth. Mrs. Keeting had come because of a letter in which Mrs. Christopherson had mentioned the fact that her husband had a good many books, and hoped he might be permitted to remove them to the house in Norfolk. She came to see the library with the result already heard.
Was she not the kind of woman who lived by sacrifice one who had far rather lead a life disagreeable to herself than change it at the cost of discomfort to her husband? This view of the matter irritated Pomfret, and he broke into objurgations, directed partly against Mrs. Keeting, partly against Christopherson. It was an 'infernal shame, that was all he could say.
Word Of The Day