Piccadilly: A Fragment of Contemporary BiographyOliphant, Laurence
General
Piccadilly: A Fragment of Contemporary Biography
Oliphant, Laurence
Piccadilly (London, England) -- Fiction
"I tell you what, Lord Broadhem," she retorted, "we will put each other
through a course of training; you shall improve my conversation and
'style of going' generally, while I try to bring you into a little
harder condition than you are at present. You have no idea of his
innocence, Lord Frank, considering that he is a rising statesman upon
whom the hopes of the Liberal party are fixed. I asked him just now,
apropos of the speech he threatens us with, 'if he felt fit,' and he
blushed to that degree that I felt quite shy. There was no harm in my
saying that, was there?"
"None that I know of," said I; "but we are attracting general attention
by talking so loud. Good-bye, Miss Wylde. I am afraid I must disturb
you, Broadhem; your sister can't hear where she is, and wants your
place;" and I walked off the young gentleman, to Wild Harrie's disgust,
and saw with satisfaction that Lady Ursula took his vacated seat.
"What a curious thing it is," said Broadhem, "that I should find in Miss
Wylde something which is to me so attractive! I daresay you think it odd
my taking you so much into my confidence; but, except Ursula, I have no
one to whom I can speak openly, and it is such a relief sometimes."
"On these occasions specially," said I.
"Do you know, I think that if I had her all to myself I could cure her
faults, for I am quite alive to them. Don't you think there is something
very fresh and natural about her?"
"Fresh, certainly, in what she would call the 'skittish' sense. As for
the natural part of it, I should require to know her better before
giving my opinion."
"You know," he went on, "she is the last person in the world with whom I
imagined it possible I could have been in love: she says the most
dreadful things sometimes--and I am afraid they amuse me more than they
should; there is no doubt about her being immensely clever, but she is
quite taken up with the world as yet."
"Not more than you are, my dear Broadhem; come and walk home with me:
you will be back in time to put the Wyldes into their carriage, and I
want to speak to you." I led him unresistingly to his coat and hat in
the hall, and braved the stern gaze of a butler who apparently dressed
after Mr Beevy, and who, when I arrived, had smiled blandly upon me as
being 'one of us,' for all the servants in Lady Broadhem's establishment
were guaranteed converted. "No servants, whose principles are not
strictly Evangelical, and who are unable to produce unexceptionable
testimony as to their personal piety, need apply"--that was the form of
the advertisement, and the consequence was, that every menial in the
house had brought a certificate of his or her entire change of heart
from their last place. Lady Broadhem was also very particular about the
theological views of the family they had just left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account