Neva's choice: A sequel to "Neva's three lovers"Lewis, Harriet
General
Neva's choice: A sequel to "Neva's three lovers"
Lewis, Harriet
Conspiracies -- Fiction; Dime novels; Mate selection -- Fiction; Popular literature; Stepmothers -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
“Miserable wine!” she commented, with a wry face, as she set down her
glass. “Gladstone, isn’t it, Charles? It comes at four and six the
dozen bottles, I believe. I never buy it myself. I prefer to take
wormwood and vitriol undiluted.”
The lawyer flushed. He prided himself on being a connoisseur of wines,
and having the choicest cellar in Canterbury.
“That’s real port, Aunt Wroat,” he exclaimed--“of the vintage of ’42.”
“Oh, they told you that, did they?” asked the old lady. “These cheap
wine dealers are up to all sorts of tricks. I am surprised that you
should have been taken in so, nephew Charles. At your time of life a
man should have some judgment of his own.”
Mr. Blight bit his lips furiously, and his wife fancied she heard the
old lady chuckle softly to herself, but a glance at her did not confirm
the impression.
Presently the old lady opened an attack upon the lawyer’s wife. She
looked at her though a quizzing-glass, and exclaimed suddenly, with
apparent astonishment:
“Laura, do you think it good taste to wear all that Brummagem? If I
could not get real gold, I wouldn’t put on servant’s ornaments; I
wouldn’t indeed.”
“But these are real gold, Aunt Wroat,” said Mrs. Blight, her voice
trembling with annoyance.
“Tut, tut,” said the old lady severely. “Don’t contradict me. I have
been used to good jewelry all my life, and ought to know it when I see
it. Good gold! Ha, ha! If you don’t know good gold, ask your cook.”
Mrs. Blight nearly choked with rage, and sulked during the remainder
of the dinner, or until her husband threw her a warning glance that
reminded her that she could not afford to quarrel with their eccentric
relative.
Several times during the repast the host and hostess were stirred to
anger they dared not exhibit, and several times Mrs. Blight fancied
she heard the old lady chuckle to herself, but of this she could not
be quite sure. The Blights fawned upon their wealthy guest, swallowed
her insults, and smiled distractedly at her deadliest thrusts. But both
drew a sigh of relief when the old lady had been carried back into the
drawing-room.
“May be she’ll go to her room now?” whispered Mrs. Blight to her
husband, as the old lady fanned herself vigorously, and appeared
oblivious of their existence.
“No such good luck,” returned the lawyer ill-naturedly. “She ought to
be shut up in a lunatic asylum, the old nuisance. If it wasn’t for her
money, she might die in an alms-house before I’d give her shelter.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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