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Updated: June 18, 2025
'I think I shall go down to Burgesses, after all, mamma. It's quite light, she said with audacious pertness. Her father looked at her. 'What were you doing this afternoon, Milly? 'I went out for a walk, pa. 'Who with? 'No one. 'Didn't I see you on the canal-side with young Ryley? 'Yes, father. He was going back to the works after dinner, and he just happened to overtake me.
Leonora reflected that whereas Ethel showed a marked gift for housekeeping, Milly was instinctively averse to everything merely domestic. But with her acquired fatalism she accepted the ukase. 'You understand, said John to his pert youngest. 'Yes, papa. 'No more carrying-on with Fred Ryley or any one else. 'No, papa. 'I've got quite enough to worry me without being bothered by you girls.
This son combined the best qualities of Harry Burgess and Fred Ryley. She made him tall as herself, handsome as herself, and like herself elegant. Shrewd, clever, and passably virtuous, he was nevertheless distinctly capable of follies; but he told her everything, even the worst, and though sometimes she frowned he smiled away the frown.
By this arrangement, which suited them excellently since they had always lived together, though neither could touch the principal of their joint property during their joint lives, the survivor had complete freedom to dispose of everything. Both Meshach and Hannah had made a will in sole favour of John. 'Yes, John said again, 'he's altered it in favour of young Ryley.
'Well, mother? Ethel answered in a tone of weary defiance. Leonora still sat at the supper-table, awaiting John, who was out at a meeting; Ethel stood leaning against the mantelpiece like a boy. 'How often have you been seeing Fred Ryley lately? Leonora began with a gentle, pacific inquiry. 'I see him every day at the works, mother. 'I don't mean at the works; you know that, Ethel.
Stanway had been perfectly aware that the little ledger was in his safe, and as soon as Ryley had shut the door he jumped up, unlatched the safe, removed the book, and after tearing it in two stuck first one half and then the other into the midst of the fire. 'That ends it, anyhow! he thought, when the leaves were consumed.
'And I only took him out of kindness! Simply out of kindness! I tell you what, Leonora! He faced her in a sort of bravado. 'It would serve 'em d n well right if Uncle Meshach died to-morrow, and Aunt Hannah the day after. I should be safe then. It would serve them d n well right, all of 'em Ryley and Uncle Meshach; yes, and Aunt Hannah too!
Then his eye wandered to the desk and he saw that an envelope had been placed with mathematical exactitude in the middle of his blotting-pad. 'Ryley! he thought. This other letter was marked private, and as the envelope said 'John Stanway, Esq., without an address, it must have been brought by special messenger.
Ryley was never late, never neglectful, never wrong; he never wasted an hour either of his own or his employer's time. And yet his colleagues liked him, perhaps because he was unobtrusive and good-natured. At the beginning of each year he laid down a programme for himself, and he was incapable of swerving from it.
Taking his stick from Milly, he clutched Arthur's arm again, and very slowly left the room. After a moment's hesitation Leonora followed and overtook them at the bottom of the stairs; it was the first time she had forsaken the bedside. She was surprised to see Fred Ryley in the hall, self-conscious but apparently determined to be quite at home.
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