Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 15, 2025
She wished she had not refused so hastily such a simple request; she began to think herself a wretch for ever contradicting him in anything. The little party started again, increased by the arrival of the family carriage from Kingcombe Holm, wherein sat Mary and Eulalie. To these were speedily added the three young Dugdales, all in high glee.
Dugdale appeared with a message, which by some wondrous good fortune he remembered to deliver that Nathanael had returned from Weymouth to Kingcombe, and was waiting there. Agatha gathered with difficulty that her husband wished her to return with Mr. Dugdale. "I will not go." "That's right! I wouldn't do it upon any account," said Eulalie, with not the kindest of laughs.
None turned to look back at either, excepting only for one lingering, parting glance Anne Valery. The same afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Harper and Miss Valery drove to Kingcombe, to see if in that quaint little town there was a house suitable for the young couple.
It was a dark winter's night there was not a soul abroad, though some faint light showed they were near the town. The bells of Kingcombe Church were ringing merrily through the mist. "I had quite forgotten," muttered Duke to himself. "This must be Christmas-eve." What a Christmas-eve! He half led, half lifted Agatha through the wet fields and along the road.
Dugdale had said about the custom at Kingcombe an irrefragable law of country etiquette -of a bride's going to church for the first time, ceremoniously, in bridal dress. And no sooner had she descended wrapped in the first morning-frock she could lay her hands upon, than Harrie entered. "So I am your first visitor you see. Many welcomes to your new home!
"Oh, what a delicious nest," she cried overcome with excitement at her first view of Kingcombe Holm, where, however, there was not a creature visible but the great dog, that barked a furious welcome from the courtyard, and the peacock, that strutted to and fro before the blank windows, sweeping his draggled tail. "Are they at home, I wonder? Will they all be waiting for us?"
I believe I shall never be far away from Thornhurst and Kingcombe, and Kingcombe Holm." She said this more to herself than to Agatha, who listened, her throat choking; then answered abruptly, "You are talking too much you must be quiet." Anne smiled one of her old smiles, so full of cheerfulness. "I think I am quiet enough already, but I will obey."
It was given by a loyal Harper during the Protectorate. It had been St. Mary's Abbey, but he, with pretended sanctimoniousness, changed the name, and called it Kingcombe Holm; as a gentle hint from the Dorsetshire coast to Prince Charles over the water. Ah! a clever fellow was my great-great-grandfather, Geoffrey Harper!"
She took her resolution though it could hardly be called a resolution, being merely the blind impulse of despair. She climbed over the gate she had not wit enough to unfasten it and ran, swift and silent as some wild animal, along the road to Kingcombe. The rain ceased, and her dripping clothes dried of themselves, so as not to encumber her movements.
She walked beside him till he was laid upon his bed, and then tried again to speak to him. She did it caressingly, as though the old dying man had been a sick child. "Be content, now quite content. I will take care of you, and see that all is done right. I shall, not be away two minutes; I am only going to send for help your own doctor from Kingcombe. We must try to get you well. Lie here quiet."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking