Davenport Dunn, a Man of Our Day. Volume 1 (of 2)Lever, Charles
General
Davenport Dunn, a Man of Our Day. Volume 1 (of 2)
Lever, Charles
Aristocracy (Social class) -- Great Britain -- Fiction; Capitalists and financiers -- Fiction
“Well, well,” continued Driscoll, “maybe I'm just as happy, ay, happier
than ever I was! Every one is kind and good-natured to me now. Nobody
takes offence at what I say or do; they know well in their hearts that I
don't mean any harm.”
“That you don't,” broke in Bella, whose gratitude for many a passing
word of kindness, as he met her of a morning, willingly seized upon the
opportunity for acknowledgment.
“My daughter has often told me of the kind way you always spoke to her.”
“Think of that, now,” muttered Terry to himself; “and I saying all the
while to my own heart, “'T is a proud man you ought to be to-day, Terry
Driscoll, to be giving good-morning to Miss Kellett of Kellett's Court,
the best ould blood in your own county.'”
“Your health, Driscoll,--your health,” cried Kellett, warmly. “Let your
head be where it will, your heart's in the right place, anyhow.”
“Do you say so, now?” asked he, with all the eagerness of one putting a
most anxious question.
“I do, and I 'd swear it,” cried Kellett, resolutely. “'Tis too clever
and too 'cute the world's grown; they were better times when there was
more good feeling and less learning.”
“Indeed--indeed, it was the remark I made to my sister Mary the night
before last,” broke in Driscoll. “'What is there,' says I, 'that
Miss Kellett can't teach them? They know the rule of three and What
's-his-name's Questions as well as I know my prayers. You don't want
them to learn mensuration and the use of the globes?' 'I 'll send them
to a school in France,' says she; 'it's the only way to be genteel.'”
“To a school in France?” cried Bella; “and is that really determined
on?”
“Yes, miss; they 're to go immediately, and ye see that was the reason I
walked out here in the rain to-night I said to myself, 'Terry,' says I,
'they 'll never say a word about this to Miss Kellett till the quarter
is up; be off, now, and break it to her at once.'”
“It was so like your own kind heart,” burst out Bella.
“Yes,” muttered Driscoll, as if in a revery, “that's the only good o' me
now,--I can think of what will be of use to others.”
“Did n't I tell you we were in a vein of good luck, Bella?” said
Kellett, between his teeth; “didn't I say awhile ago there was more
coming?”
“'But,' says I to Mary,” continued Driscoll, “'you must take care to
recommend Miss Kellett among your friends--'”
Kellett dashed his glass down with such force on the table as to
frighten Driscoll, whose speech was thus abruptly cut short, and the two
men sat staring fixedly at each other. The expression of poor Terry's
vacant face, in which a struggling effort to deprecate anger was the
solitary emotion readable, so overcame Kellett's passion that, stooping
over, he grasped the other's hand warmly, and said,--
“You 're a kind-hearted creature, and you 'd never hurt a living soul. I
'm not angry with you.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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