Booksellers and bookselling -- England -- Fiction; Families -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
"Well," he said, "the fact is that I should like to buy a few books
and things. Perhaps--"
"Cousin," said Lotty eagerly, "please give him a check for a hundred
pounds. Make it a hundred. You said everything was mine. No, Joe, I
won't hear a word about repayment, as if a little thing like fifty
pounds, or a hundred pounds, should want to be repaid! As if you and I
could ever talk about repayment!"
Clara did as she was asked readily and eagerly. Then Joe departed,
promising to call and say farewell before he left England, and
resolving that in his next visit--his last visit--there should be
another check. But he had made one mistake; he had parted with the
papers. No one in any situation of life should ever give up the power,
until he has secured the substance. But it is human to err.
"And now, my dear," said Clara warmly, "sit down and let us talk.
Arnold is coming to lunch with us, and to make your acquaintance."
When Arnold came a few minutes later, he was astonished to find his
cousin already on the most affectionate terms with the newly-arrived
Iris Deseret. She was walking about the room showing her the pictures
of her grandfather and other ancestors, and they were hand-in-hand.
"Arnold," said Clara, "this is Iris, and I hope you will both be great
friends; Iris, this is my cousin, but he is not yours."
"I don't pretend to know how that may be," said the young lady. "But
then I am glad to know all your cousins, whether they are mine or not;
only don't bother me with questions, because I don't remember
anything, and I don't know anything. Why, until the other day I did
not even know that I was an English lady, not until they found those
papers."
A strange accent for an American! and she certainly said "laidy" for
"lady," and "paipper" for "paper," like a cockney. Alas! This comes of
London Music Halls even to country-bred damsels!
Arnold made a mental observation that the new-comer might be called
anything in the world, but could not be called a lady. She was
handsome, certainly, but how could Claude Deseret's daughter have
grown into so common a type of beauty? Where was the delicacy of
feature and manner which Clara had never ceased to commend in speaking
of her lost cousin?
"Iris," said Clara, "is our little savage from the American Forest.
She is Queen Pocahontas, who has come over to conquer England and to
win all our hearts. My dear, my Cousin Arnold will help me to make you
an English girl."
She spoke as in the State of Maine was still the hunting-ground of
Sioux and Iroquois.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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