United States or Luxembourg ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He had expected to unite Natalie's fortune with his own and thus obtain for his married life an income of one hundred thousand francs a year; and however much a man may be in love he cannot pass without emotion and anxiety from the prospect of a hundred thousand to the certainty of forty-six thousand a year and the duty of providing for a woman accustomed to every luxury.
"Look at me!" she cried. "I'm getting old under it. I have lines about my eyes already. I hate to look at myself in the morning. And I'm not old. I ought to be at my best now." Natalie's anxiety was for Graham, but her pity was for herself. Audrey's heart hardened. "I'm sorry," she said. "I can't go to Clay. I feel as I think he does. If Graham wants to go, he should be free to do it.
I received such warm and repeated solicitations to come here, that I accepted. We came on the 3d, and shall remain here till the day after to-morrow, when-oh!-oh! I go to Hagley, where we shall remain till Natalie's arrival, which will carry me to Charleston. It might appear ill-natured and ungrateful for the kindness John and Sally show me to regret residing at Hagley.
"Everybody says it's my father's fault; they say he's a ne'er-do-weel; and even unkinder things. But he's such a dear boy" Natalie's voice softened "as young, oh! years younger than you! And everything invariably goes wrong with his affairs," she continued briskly; "but he is always good-tempered, and never neglects to be polite to the ladies. My mother has been an invalid for ten years.
Natalie's voice was high. "That sounds like Clay. Happiness! Don't you suppose I want to be happy?" "Not enough to work for it," said Audrey, evenly. Natalie turned and stared at her. "I believe you're half in love with Clay yourself!" "Perhaps I am." But she smiled frankly into Natalie's eyes. "I know if I were married to him, I'd try to do what he wanted." "You'd try it for a year.
Natalie's thoughts beat their wings desperately against her head. Here, indeed, was a situation to try the pluck of a highly civilized young lady. What should she do? What should she say? What tone should she take? In the end she was quite honest. "You have never given me any reason to think otherwise," she said. Her secret agitation peeped out in the added briskness of her tones.
"It's time to be serious. Natalie's birthday, Mr. Linzie, is next Christmas-day. She will be sixteen " "At seven in the morning," said Launce; "I got that out of Sir Joseph. At one minute past seven, Greenwich mean time, we may be off together. I got that out of the lawyer." "And it isn't an eternity to wait from now till Christmas-day.
"It would likely enough only get you into trouble. Probably she cannot sleep well, and so walks in the garden. Anyway this is none of our business, my man. Where are Miss Natalie's apartments?" "In the other wing, sir; the first door beyond the head of the stairs." "And the door you were asked to leave open?" "At the farther end of the hall."
He also spoke to her of the sorrow of his master on account of the ingratitude and deceptions he had experienced, and Natalie's eyes filled with tears as, with reproachful glances, she asked of Heaven how it could have permitted the virtue of this noble unknown hero to be so severely tried, and the baseness of mankind to trouble him.
If her resemblance to the mistress of the house was as remarkable as he had been led to believe, her entrance to the place would be comparatively easy of accomplishment, and the danger of discovery correspondingly small. It never occurred to him to question Natalie's story.
Word Of The Day