Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 27, 2025
One of the first questions on his tongue, as his mother instantly noticed, had been a question as to Miss Mallory. Was she still at Beechcote? Had his mother seen anything of her? Yes, she was still at Beechcote. Mrs. Roughsedge, however, had seen her but seldom and slightly since her son's departure for London.
A friend should not come home to her from perils of land and sea, and find her ungrateful a niggard of sympathy and praise. So that when Dr. and Mrs. Roughsedge appeared, and Muriel returned with them, Mrs. Roughsedge, all on edge with anxiety, could make very little of what had what must have occurred.
Roughsedge looked out of the window, twisting her handkerchief. "Nothing only everything seems done and finished." "At twenty-two?" The doctor laughed, "And it's not quite four months yet since the poor thing discovered that her doll was stuffed with sawdust. Really, Patricia!" Mrs. Roughsedge slowly shook her head.
Yet even so, to Sir James's keen sense, there was an increase, a sharpening, in Diana's personality, of the wistful, appealing note, which had been always touching, always perceptible, even through the radiant days of her Tallyn visit. Ah, well! like Dr. Roughsedge, only with a far deeper urgency, he, too, for want of any better plan, invoked the coming lover.
Fanny would not like them, nor they her. The luncheon-party had been arranged for Mr. Birch, Fanny's train acquaintance. Diana had asked the Roughsedges, explaining the matter, with a half-deprecating, half-humorous face, to the comfortable ear of Mrs. Roughsedge.
It embraced some ten families, who drew up their Mudie lists in common and sent the books from house to house. The Vicar and Dr. Roughsedge had been till now mainly responsible for these lists so far, at least, as "serious books" were concerned, the ladies being allowed the chief voice in the novels. Mrs. Roughsedge, a little fluttered, asked for information.
The old doctor among his books was now sufficiently at his ease with her to pet her, teach her, and, when necessary, laugh at her. And Mrs. Roughsedge, however she might feel herself eclipsed by Lady Lucy, was, in truth, much more fit to minister to such ruffled feelings as Diana was now conscious of than that delicate and dignified lady.
She stroked her friend's hand piteously. Mrs. Roughsedge, foreseeing the storm of gossip that would be sweeping in a day or two through the village and the neighborhood, could not command herself to speak. Her questions her indignation choked her.
"The laundry maids are allowed to go out every evening, if they like and Miss Mallory makes no attempt to influence the servants to come to church. The Vicar says the seats for the Beechcote servants have never been so empty." "Dear, dear!" murmured Mrs. Roughsedge. "And money is improperly given away. Several people whom the Vicar thinks most unfit objects of charity have been assisted.
Hugh Roughsedge had only just returned from a month's stay in London, made necessary by those new Army examinations which his soul detested. By dint of strenuous coaching he had come off moderately victorious, and had now returned home for a week's extra leave before rejoining his regiment.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking