United States or Heard Island and McDonald Islands ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
To arrive at such a conclusion as this might be to judge hastily and cruelly of a man who was perhaps only guilty of a want of delicacy of feeling. Mr. Rayburn honestly did his best to assume the charitable point of view. At the same time, it is not to be denied that his words, when he answered, were carefully guarded, and that he rose to take his leave. Mr. John Zant hospitably protested.
"I don't like deceit." "In that case, sir, I'll wish you good-by. We will leave Mrs. Zant to do the best she can for herself." Mr. Rayburn was unreasonable. He positively refused to adopt this alternative. "Will you hear what I have got to say?" the housekeeper asked. "There can be no harm in that," he admitted. "Go on." She took him at his word.
"Have you any idea what all this means?" she said, simply. Mr. Rayburn kept his idea to himself. He professed ignorance; and asked next what sort of person the housekeeper was. Mrs. Zant shook her head ominously. "Such a strange creature," she said, "and in the habit of taking such liberties that I begin to be afraid she is a little crazy." "Is she an old woman?" "No only middle-aged."
She advanced a step nearer to him, and spoke her next words in a whisper. "Take Mrs. Zant away from this place, and lose no time in doing it." Mr. Rayburn was on his guard. He merely asked: "Why?" The housekeeper answered in a curiously indirect manner partly in jest, as it seemed, and partly in earnest.
Of course M. van Zant accepted; and since then this Señor Sperati has travelled everywhere with us, has had the entrée like one of us, and his friend, the bad rider, has fairly bewitched my stepmother, for she is ever with him, ever with them both, and and Ah, mon Dieu! the lion smiles, and my people die! Why does it 'smile' for no others? Why is it only they, my father, my brother, they alone?"
Innocently at a loss to understand how she could become an object of the housekeeper's jealousy, Mrs. Zant looked at Mr. Rayburn in astonishment. Before she could give expression to her feeling of surprise, there was an interruption a welcome interruption. A waiter entered the room, and announced a visitor; described as "a gentleman." Mrs. Zant at once rose to retire. "Who is the gentleman?" Mr.
He spoke impulsively with the freedom of an old friend, "I want to know more of you and Mr. John Zant than I know now," he said. "My motive is a better one than mere curiosity. Do you believe that I feel a sincere interest in you?" "With my whole heart." That reply encouraged him to proceed with what he had to say. "When you recovered from your fainting-fit," he began, "Mr.
Gentle hands raised my head, at the moment when I recovered my senses. Who had brought me to life again? Who was taking care of me? I looked upward, and saw bending over me John Zant. THERE, the manuscript ended. Some lines had been added on the last page; but they had been so carefully erased as to be illegible.
Rayburn, he would have felt it his duty to reject them, as unjustifiable aspersions on an absent man. And yet, when he took leave that evening of Mrs. Zant, he had pledged himself to give Lucy a holiday at the seaside: and he had said, without blushing, that the child really deserved it, as a reward for general good conduct and attention to her lessons!
Zant was pacing to and fro across the breadth of the room. At the opposite end of the table, John Zant was seated. Taken completely by surprise, he showed himself in his true character. He started to his feet, and protested with an oath against the intrusion which had been committed on him. Heedless of his action and his language, Mr. Rayburn could look at nothing, could think of nothing, but Mrs.
Word Of The Day