Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875Various
History
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals
"I fancied the gay young things were here on their wedding-trip,"
Trelyon said carelessly. "They amused me. I like to see turtle-doves
of fifty billing and cooing on the promenade, especially when
one of them wears a brown wig, has an Irish accent and drinks
brandy-and-water at breakfast. But he is a good billiard-player--yes,
he is an uncommonly good billiard-player. He told me last night he had
beaten the Irish secretary the other day in the billiard-room of the
House of Commons. I humbly suspect that was a lie. At least, I can't
remember anything about a billiard-table in the House of Commons, and
I was two or three times through every bit of it when I was a little
chap with an uncle of mine, who was a member then; but perhaps they've
got a billiard-table now. Who knows? He told me he had stood for an
Irish borough, spent three thousand pounds on a population of two
hundred and eighty-four, and all he got was a black eye and a broken
head. I should say all that was a fabrication too; indeed, I think he
rather amuses himself with lies--and brandy-and-water. But you don't
want to know anything more about him, Mrs. Rosewarne?"
She did not. All that she cared to know was in that little strip of
printed paper; and as she left the room to get ready for the drive she
expressed herself grateful to him in such warm tones that he was
rather astonished. After all, as he said to himself, he had had
nothing to do in bringing about the marriage of that somewhat gorgeous
person in whom Mrs. Rosewarne was so strangely interested.
They were silent as they drove away. There was one happy face amongst
them, that of Mrs. Rosewarne, but she was thinking of her own affairs
in a sort of pleased reverie. Wenna was timid and a trifle sad: she
said little beyond "Yes, Mr. Trelyon," and "No, Mr. Trelyon," and even
that was said in low voice. As for him, he spoke to her gravely and
respectfully: it was already as if she were a mere stranger.
Had some of his old friends and acquaintances seen him now, they would
have been something more than astonished. Was this young man, talking
in a gentle and courteous fashion to his companion, and endeavoring to
interest her in the various things around her, the same daredevil lad
who used to clatter down the main street of Eglosilyan, who knew no
control other than his own unruly wishes, and who had no answer but a
mocking jest for any remonstrance?
"And how long do you remain in Penzance, Mr. Trelyon?" Mrs. Rosewarne
said at length.
"Until to-morrow, I expect," he answered.
"To-morrow?"
"Yes: I am going back to Eglosilyan. You know my mother means to give
some party or other on my coming of age, and there is so little of
that amusement going on at our house that it needs all possible
encouragement. After that I mean to leave Eglosilyan for a time."
Wenna said nothing, but her downcast face grew a little paler: it was
she who was banishing him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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