United States or Slovenia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"From Robert Maitland to Miss Marlett. "The Dovecot, Conisbeare, "Tiverton. "I come to-morrow, leaving by 10.30 train. Do not let Margaret see newspaper. Her father dead. Break news." This telegram gave Maitland, in his excited state, more trouble to construct than might have been expected.
Therefore, Miss Marlett never poked the fire, which, consequently used to grow black toward its early death, and was only revived, at dangerously long intervals, by the most minute doses of stimulant in the shape of rather damp small coals.
There was a long narrow table, with cross-tables at each end, these high seats, or dais, being occupied by Miss Marlett and the governesses. At intervals down the table were stacked huge piles of bread and butter of extremely thick bread and surprisingly thin butter each slice being divided into four portions. The rest of the banquet consisted solely of tea.
"It is impossible to say whom girls may meet, and how they may manage it, Mr. Maitland," said Miss Marlett sadly; when Janey broke in: "I am sure Margaret never met him here. She was not a girl to have such a secret, and she could not have acted a part so as to have taken me in. I saw him first, out of the window. Margaret was very unhappy; she had been crying.
There was, perhaps, no necessity for adding to the public information about the circumstances of Mr. Shields' decease. "He was overcome by the cold and snow, I mean, on the night of the great storm." "I have always heard that the death of people made drowsy by snow and fatigue is as painless as sleep," said Miss Marlett with some tact.
Neither Miss Marlett, if she had aught to communicate, nor anyone else, could be expected to know that Mait-land's first act would be to rush to Oxford and consult Bielby. The guardian of Margaret turned with no success to his breakfast commons; even tea appeared unwelcome and impossible. Maitland felt very drowsy, dull, indifferent, when a knock came to his door, and Mr. Whalley entered.
Miss Marlett carried generosity so far that she did not even ask which of the girls was to be chosen for this service. Perhaps she guessed that it was the other culprit.
I only #sent one, to the effect that I would leave town by the 10.30 train, and come straight to you. There must be some mistake somewhere. Can I see Miss Shields?" "See Miss Shields! Why, she's gone! She left this morning with your friend," said Miss Marlett, raising a face at once mournful and alarmed, and looking straight at her visitor. "She's gone!
Had he owned a more full-blooded life, he would probably have lost his temper, and "spoken his mind," as the saying is, to poor Miss Marlett She certainly should never have let Margaret go with a stranger, on the authority even of a telegram from the girl's guardian. It struck Maitland, finally, that Miss Marlett was very slow about finding the despatches.
The telegram which followed Maitland's, and in which Cranley used Maitland's name, had entirely deceived Miss Marlett, as we have seen. By the most obvious ruses he had prevented Maitland from following his track to London. His housekeeper had entered the "engaged" carriage at Westbourne Park, and shared, as far as the terminus, the compartment previously occupied by himself and Margaret alone.
Word Of The Day