In Trust: The Story of a Lady and Her LoverOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
General
In Trust: The Story of a Lady and Her Lover
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
Fiction
‘No, Miss Anne. I can’t say as I’ve repented. Oh, no, I’ve never
repented. Mr. Saymore is very much respected in Hunston--and there’s
never a day that he don’t bring me something, a ribbon or a new collar,
or a story book if he can’t think of nothing else. It _was_ a little
disappointing when mother was found not to do in the kitchen. You see,
Miss Anne, we want the best of cooking when strangers come, and mother,
she was old-fashioned. She’s never forgiven me, though it wasn’t my
fault. And Tommy, he was too mischievous for a waiter. We gave him a
good long try, but Mr. Saymore was obliged at last to send him away.
Mother says she don’t see what it’s done for her, more than if I had
stayed at Mount--but I’m very comfortable myself, Miss Anne,’ said
Keziah, with a curtsey and a tear.
‘I am very glad to hear it: and I hope you’ll be still happier
by-and-by,’ said Anne, retiring to the room which was to be hers, and
which opened from the little sitting-room in which they were standing.
Rose remained behind for further talk and gossip. And when all the news
was told Keziah returned to her admiration of the fashion of Rose’s
gown.
‘Are they all made like that now, in Paris? Oh, dear, I always thought
when you went to France I’d go too. I always thought of Paris. But it
wasn’t to be.’
‘You see, Keziah, you liked Saymore best,’ said Rose, fixing her
mischievous eyes upon Keziah’s face, who smiled a little sheepish smile,
and made a little half-pathetic appeal with her eyes, but did not disown
the suggestion, which flattered her vanity if not her affection.
‘You are as blooming as a rose, Miss--as you always was,’ said Keziah,
‘but what’s Miss Anne been a-doing to herself? She’s like a white marble
image in a church; I never saw her that pale.’
‘Hush!’ cried Rose, in a whisper, pointing to the door behind them, by
which Anne had disappeared; and then she came close to the questioner,
with much pantomime and mystery. ‘Don’t say a word. Keziah. It is all
broken off. She has thrown the gentleman over. Hush, for heaven’s sake,
don’t say a word!’
‘You don’t mean it, Miss Rose. Broken off! Mr. Dou----’
Rose put her hand on the little landlady’s mouth. ‘She must not hear we
are talking of her. She would never forgive me. And besides, I don’t
know--it is only a guess; but I am quite, quite sure.’
Keziah threw up her hands and her eyes. ‘All broken off--thrown the
gentleman over! Is there someone else?’ she whispered, trembling,
thinking with mingled trouble and complacency of her own experiences in
this kind, and of her unquestioned superiority nowadays to the lover
whom she had thrown over--the unfortunate Jim.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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