Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
She was very thin, too, and very small, and putting aside her wiggeries, you would think her to be all eyes. She was a ghastly old woman to the sight, and not altogether pleasant in her mode of talking. She seemed to know Mr Musselboro very well, for she called him by his name without any prefix. He had, indeed, begun life as a clerk in her husband's office.
There was no reason why he should be ashamed of meeting Crosbie; and yet, when he saw him, the blood mounted all over his face, and he forgot to make any further search for Mr Musselboro. "I am so much obliged to Mr Dalrymple for bringing you," said Mrs Dobbs Broughton very sweetly, "only he ought to have come sooner. Naughty man! I know it was his fault. Will you take Miss Demolines down?
"She is an idiot!" said Mrs Van Siever. "She has had a terrible misfortune!" "That is no reason why she should be an idiot; and she is heartless too. She never cared a bit for him, not a bit." "He was a man whom it was impossible to care for much. I will go to her now, mamma." "Where is Musselboro?" "He is upstairs." "Well?" "Mamma, that is quite out of the question. Quite.
How was he to get through his present difficulty? "No," said he, "Broughton did not come. It was Mr Musselboro whose steps you heard below." "What is he here for? What is he doing here? Where is Dobbs? Conway, there is something the matter. Has he gone off?" "Yes; he has gone off." "The coward!" "No; he was not a coward; not in that way."
If you were in partnership with me, then of course I could tell you. But you're not. You've never trusted me, Mrs Van Siever." The lady remained there closeted with Mr Musselboro for an hour after that, and did, I think, at length learn something more as to the details of her partner's business, than her faithful servant Mr Musselboro had at first found himself able to give to her.
Before he left her she had told him a long story, partly of matters of which he had known something before, and partly made up of that which she had heard from the old woman. It was settled, Mrs Broughton said, that Mr Musselboro was to marry Clara Van Siever. But it appeared, as far as Dalrymple could learn, that this was a settlement made simply between Mrs Van Siever and Musselboro.
Clara, as he thought, was not a girl likely to fall into such a settlement without having an opinion of her own. Musselboro was to have the business, and Dobbs Broughton was to be "sold up", and then look for employment in the City. From her husband the wife had not heard a word on the matter, and the above story was simply what had been told to Mrs Broughton by Mrs Van Siever.
That she did not expect to be obeyed in her order may be inferred from the first words which she spoke to Mr Musselboro. "She has gone off to that man now. You are no good, Musselboro, at this kind of work." "You see, Mrs Van, he had the start of me so much. And then being at the West End, and all that, gives a man such a standing with a girl."
"And what about Jael, Conway? They tell me that Jael is going to become Mrs Musselboro." "Who has told you that?" "A bird." "Yes; I know who the bird is. I don't think that Jael will become Mrs Musselboro. I don't think that Jael would become Mrs Musselboro, if Jael were the only woman, and Musselboro the only man in London.
If Broughton was here at this moment it couldn't make the slightest difference." Now Mr Crosbie had an idea that Mr Musselboro, though he sat in Dobbs Broughton's seat and kept on his hat, and balanced his chair on two legs, was in truth nothing more than a clerk.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking