Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
I never heard a word from David Claridge that might not be written on the hoardings. His honour is deeper than that which might attach to the title of Earl of Eglington." She seemed to tower above him. For an instant she looked him in the eyes with frigid dignity, but a great scorn in her face. Then she went to the door he hastened to open it for her.
Faith saw this, and urged Soolsby to sit by him. She had questioned much concerning what had happened before the stroke fell, but Soolsby said only that the old man had been greatly troubled about David. Once Lady Eglington, frail and gentle and sympathetic, came, but the trouble deepened in his eyes, and the lids closed over them, so that he might not see her face.
David would have been content to live in the desert all his life for the sake of a cause, making no calculations as to reward. Eglington must ever have the counters for the game.
Miss Claridge would have it so. And none in Hamley said nay, not one." The Duchess murmured to herself. Eglington was dead Eglington was dead Eglington was dead! And David Claridge was coming out of the desert, was coming to-day-now! "How did it happen?" she asked, faintly, at last. "Things went wrong wi' him bad wrong in Parliament and everywhere, and he didn't take it well.
Soolsby had expected a different attitude; he was not easier in mind because his story had not been challenged. He blindly felt working in the man before him a powerful mind, more powerful because it faced the truth unflinchingly; but he knew that this did not mean calm acceptance of the consequences. He, not Eglington, was dazed and embarrassed, was not equal to the situation.
In his heart of hearts Eglington believed that she loved him, that her interest in David was only part of her idealistic temperament the admiration of a woman for a man of altruistic aims; but his hatred of David, of what David was, and of his irrefutable claims, reacted on her.
"Your maid Heaver?" asked Eglington in surprise, a swift shadow crossing his face. "Yes; she only told me this morning. Perhaps she had seen that Claridge Pasha was coming to England. I had not, however. At any rate, Quixotism saved her." David smiled. "It is better than I dared to hope," he remarked quietly. "But that is not all," continued Hylda. "There is more.
"What is your name, and where do you come from?" she asked, not without anxiety, for there was something ominous and suggestive in the old man's face. "I come from Hamley, in England, and my name is Soolsby, your grace. I come to see my Lady Eglington." Now she remembered him. She had seen him in Hamley more than once. "You have come far; have you important news for her ladyship?
He moved uneasily, changed his position. "Does he know?" Eglington questioned again quietly. There was no need for Eglington to explain who he was. "Of course he does not know I said so. If he knew, do you think he'd be in Egypt and you here, my lord?" Eglington was very quiet. His intellect more than his passions were now at work. "I am not sure. You never can tell.
Yet it was moving in a mist and on a flood of greater happiness than he had ever known. He did not know as yet that Eglington was gone for ever. He did not know that the winds of time had already swept away all traces of the house of ambition which Eglington had sought to build; and that his nimble tongue and untrustworthy mind would never more delude and charm, and wanton with truth.
Word Of The Day