United States or Namibia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Leadbatter and her best cap and her asthma, the week went by almost cheerfully. He worked regularly at the comic opera, nearly as happy as the canary which sang all day long, and, though scarcely a word more passed between him and Mary Ann, their eyes met ever and anon in the consciousness of a sweet secret. It was already Friday afternoon.
"If I had not flown in the old man's face and picked up a little German here years ago, I should not be half so useful to him now. . . . I shall pay a flying visit to Leipsic not on business." But at last Peter returned, Mrs. Leadbatter panting to the door to let him in one afternoon without troubling to ask Lancelot if he was "at home."
Leadbatter was taken aback by this obverse view of the situation; but, recovering herself, she shook her head. "I wouldn't cry for no brother that lef me to starve when he was rollin' in two and a 'arf million dollars," she said sceptically. "And I'm sure my Rosie wouldn't. But she never 'ad nobody to leave her money, poor dear child, except me, please Gaud.
Then Beethoven came and rubbed himself against his master's leg, and Lancelot got up as one wakes from a dream, and stretched his cramped limbs dazedly, and rang the bell mechanically for tea. He was groping on the mantel-piece for the matches when the knock at the door came, and he did not turn round till he had found them. He struck a light, expecting to see Mrs. Leadbatter or Rosie.
Presently there was another knock. Lancelot growled, half prepared to renew the battle, and to give Mrs. Leadbatter a piece of his mind on the subject. But it was merely Mary Ann. Shaken in his routine, he looked on steadily while Mary Ann drew on her gloves; and this in turn confused Mary Ann. Her hand trembled. "Let me help you," he said.
"And so the vicar will find you in a pretty dress," he said at last. "No, sir." "But you promised Mrs. Leadbatter to " "I promised to buy a dress with her sovereign. But I shan't be here when the vicar comes. He can't come till the afternoon." "Why, where will you be?" he said, his heart beginning to beat fast. "With you," she replied, with a faint accent of surprise.
Leadbatter had unearthed the box. Why did he give her more than the pair that could always be kept hidden in her pocket? Yes, it was the gloves. And then there was the canary. Mrs. Leadbatter had suspected he was leaving her for a reason. She had put two and two together, she had questioned Mary Ann, and the ingenuous little idiot had naïvely told her he was going to take her with him.
This was a new idea altogether. Mrs. Leadbatter stood waiting for his reply, with a deferential smile tempered by asthmatic contortions. "But have you got a piano of your own?" "Oh no, sir," cried Mrs. Leadbatter almost reproachfully. "Well; but how is your Rosie to practise? One lesson a week is of very little use anyway, but unless she practises a good deal it'll only be a waste of time."
It only shows 'ow right I was to send for my Rosie, though quite the lady, and where will you find a nattier nursemaid in all Bayswater?" "Nowhere," assented Lancelot, automatically. "Oh, I didn't know you'd noticed her running in to see 'er pore old mother of a Sunday arternoon," said Mrs. Leadbatter, highly gratified.
He said, "By the way, Susan, tell your mistress or is it your mother?" Mary Ann shook her head but did not speak. "Oh, you are not Miss Leadbatter?" "No; Mary Ann." She spoke humbly; her eyes were shy and would not meet his. He winced as he heard the name, though her voice was not unmusical. "Ah, Mary Ann! and I've been calling you Jane all along, Mary Ann what?"
Word Of The Day