United States or Åland ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Both the Ashtons were grieved, she naturally most; but the doctor, though not an emotional man, felt the pathos of the early death: and, besides, there was the growing suspicion that all had not been told him by Saul, and that there was something here which was out of his beaten track. When he left the chamber of death, it was to walk across the quadrangle of the residence to the sexton's house.
"The Ashtons are bringing an action against him for breach of promise; and he and Mr. Carr the barrister are trying to arrange it without its coming to a trial." The old lady opened her eyes and her mouth. "It is true. They lay the damages at ten thousand pounds!" With a shriek the countess-dowager began to dance. Ten thousand pounds!
"There is nothing to explain," was the answer. "What I told you was the truth. The action has been entered by the Ashtons." "And I tell you that the action has not." "I assure you that it has," returned Maude. "I told you of the evening we first had notice of it, and the damages claimed; do you think I invented that, or went to sleep and dreamt it?
"I hope so," responded Harry, lighting his cigar. On the first of February, they all set out for Boston, according to the previous arrangement. On their arrival in that city, they found that Charles and Ada had been there some days. Charles had received a telegram, saying that the elder Ashtons would only get there an hour or so before the steamer left.
And Lady Hartledon bottled up her curiosity and her wrath, and waited with what patience she possessed. The truth was and, perhaps, the reader may have divined it that graver motives than the sensitive feeling of not liking to face the Ashtons were keeping Lord Hartledon from his wife and home.
A month or two ago Maude had not cared enough for him to reason like this. The countess-dowager ensconced herself in a corner of the Hartledon state-pew, and from her blinking eyes looked out upon the Ashtons. Anne, with her once bright face looking rather wan, her modest demeanour; Mrs.
Philip was happier, but not thoroughly satisfied. The party set out on their return. "This ice would not have borne us many hours hence; be ready for a leap into the canoe," said Mr Norman. They reached the settlement, however, in safety. The inhabitants were divided in opinion as to whether the young Ashtons were lost or not; Philip was eager to reach home to settle the point.
"You did not allow me to finish," was the cold rejoinder. "Business is keeping him in town, for one thing; for another, I think he cannot get over his dislike to face the Ashtons." "Rubbish!" cried the wrathful dowager. "He does not tell you what the business is, does he?" she cynically added. "I happen to know," answered Maude.
The Ashtons were well known in New York society, and it was a sore trial to some of her conservative friends that she should reject what they considered the proper "sphere" for women. Among those friends, I understood, was Cadwalader Brown himself. Travis had scarcely more than introduced us, yet already I scented a romance behind the ordinarily prosaic conduct of a campaign press bureau.
"I am obliged to your lordship for your unsolicited intercession," said Ravenswood; "especially as I am sure your lordship would never carry it beyond the bounds which it became me to use." "Of that," said the Marquis, "you may be confident; I myself felt the delicacy of the matter too much to place a gentleman nearly connected with my house in a degrading or dubious situation with these Ashtons.
Word Of The Day