Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: August 17, 2024
Sloyd whispered in his ear; Duplay guessed that he counselled more urbanity; Harry turned from him with a rather contemptuous little laugh. "Oh, I've got my living to earn now," Duplay heard him whisper and reflected that he had never wasted much time on politeness, even before that necessity came upon him. It was strange that Sloyd did not try to take any part in the discussion.
His prospective relationship to Bob had reached the stage of being assumed between Duplay and him, although it had not yet been explicitly mentioned. "I wish somebody would try me!" laughed the Major. "I'm kicking my heels all day down here." Iver made no reply and played the round in silence. He lost, perhaps because he was thinking of something else.
The relief in Duplay's mind was so great that he could not explain it, until he realized that his niece's way of treating him had so stuck in his memory that he had been prepared to be turned from Iver's doors with contumely. Such an idea seemed absurd now, and the Major laughed. Mina was strange, Duplay never ceased to think that.
She had guessed enough to see that, for the moment at least, Harry had succeeded in handling Duplay so roughly as to delay, if not to thwart, his operations; what would he not do to her, whom he must know to be the original cause of the trouble? She used to stand on the terrace at Merrion and wonder about this; and she dared not go to Fairholme lest she should encounter Harry.
Duplay had gathered confidence; his tone was calm and assured as he came step by step near his mark, as he established position after position in his attack. "You are paying attentions to Miss Iver with a view to marriage, I presume?" Harry made no sign. Duplay proceeded, slowly and with careful deliberation.
Duplay greeted the house-agent with grave courtesy, and entered into conversation with him, while Madame Zabriska, relapsed again into an alert silence, watched the pair.
But he dared show no sympathy beyond nodding at her unobserved. The nod told her nothing. "You'll stop me?" Still she tried to sneer defiantly. Another glance passed between Iver and Duplay. A shrewd observer might have interpreted it as meaning, "Even if we can't do it, she'll think we can." "We shall," said the Major, executing the bluff on behalf of himself and his partner.
He was tall, erect, and good-looking. Both air and manner were youthful, although perhaps with a trace of artifice; he would pass for thirty-five on a casual glance, but not after a longer one. "My uncle, Major Duplay," said the little woman. "This is Mr Sloyd, who's come about the house, uncle."
He had a single room in the house of Duplay, at the extreme west end of the long Rue Saint Honoré, half a mile from the Jacobin Club, and less than that from the Riding School of the Tuileries, where the Constituent and Legislative Assemblies held session.
Duplay sought the telegraph office and informed Iver of the uncompromising attitude of the enemy. He added that Harry Tristram was in the business and that Harry suggested an interview.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking