American fiction -- 19th century; Dime novels; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Upper class -- Fiction
“What a simpleton you must be to think I was in earnest when I told
you to go and never come back again. I know I tried you awfully and so
you did me, and you called me such dreadful names—a _vixen_, a
_virago_, a _cat_, and a _termagant_, and the dear knows what, and I
called you a _bore_, and a _spooney_, and said I hated you, but, Phil,
I do not, and I am just as lonesome without you as I can be, and last
night, after I went to my room, I cried real hard, and said to myself,
‘I am sorry, Phil,’ and I am, and want you to forgive me, and come
right over here with Pierre and stay to lunch. I have ordered broiled
chicken, with pop-overs and maple sirup. You know you can eat a dozen.
I shall be out on the rocks, and see you when you come down the hill,
and I will tie my pocket-handkerchief to my parasol and wave it for a
signal. And now you will come, won’t you, and we will make it up, and
never, never fight again?
“Your repentant
“QUEENIE.”
Phil Rossiter was not the man to withstand an appeal like this, and, as
he read it, India and everything else was forgotten in his intense
desire to fly to the girl waiting for him.
Mr. Beresford saw Pierre hand him the note, knew it was from Reinette,
and watched him as he read it, while his color came and went like that
of some young schoolgirl, and he was not greatly surprised when Phil
said to him, as he rose to leave the office:
“By the way, I’ve been thinking it over, and I don’t believe I care to
go to India; it is too far away. There is Will Granger—just the fellow
they want, and he needs money badly; offer it to him.”
Phil was in the street by this time, and ten minutes later he was
galloping toward Hetherton Place and the girl whose signal he saw as she
waved it aloft to let him know she was there. And Phil rode hard and
fast until he was at her side, sitting just where Mr. Beresford had
stood the night before and asked her to be his wife.
How sweet and lovely she was with that air of shyness and penitence! for
she was very sorry for what had passed, and very glad to have Phil back;
and she gave him both her hands, and offered no resistance when he
kissed them more than once, and held them while he talked to her, and
asked if she did not think him weak and silly to come the minute she
sent for him.
“No, I don’t,” she said; “I knew you would come back, just as I knew I
should send for you. It is useless for us to try to live apart, for what
would the world be to either of us without the other?”
“Nothing, Queenie, nothing,” Phil said, eagerly, as he drew her down
beside him and passed his arm around her waist, while the light of a new
hope and joy shone all over his face.
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