City and town life -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
Dimpled chins and saucy eyes, and bare, dimpled arms and hands patting
butter while heads are tossed in coquettishly alluring defiance, made
even “having it out” an attractive and memory-obscuring process. Sarah
was a plump and sparkling imp of prettiness, and knew the power of every
sly glance and every dimple and every golden freckle she possessed.
George did not know it so well, and in ten minutes had lost his head and
entirely forgotten even the half-mile behind.
He was lover-like, he was masterful, he brought the spring with him; he
“carried on,” as Sarah put it, until he had actually out-distanced
the soldier, and had her in his arms, kissing her as she laughed and
prettily struggled.
“Shame o' tha face! Shame o' tha face, George!” she scolded and dimpled
and blushed. “Wilt tha be done now? Wilt tha be done? I'll call mother.”
And at that very moment mother came without being called, running, red
of face, heavy-footed, and panting, with her cap all on one side.
“Th' duke's run away! Th' duke's run away!” she shouted. “Jo seed him.
Pony got freetened at summat--an' what art doin' here, George Bind? Get
o' thy horse an' gallop. If he's killed, tha 'rt a ruined man.”
There was an odd turn of chance in it, the duke thought afterward.
Though friskier than usual, the Indolent Apprentice had behaved
perfectly well until they neared the gates of Temple Barholm, which
chanced to be open because a cart had just passed through. And it was
not the cart's fault, for the Indolent Apprentice regarded it with
friendly interest. It happened, however, that perhaps being absorbed
in the cart, which might have been drawn by a friend or even a distant
relative, the Indolent Apprentice was horribly startled by a large
rabbit which leaped out of the hedge almost under his nose, and, worse
still, was followed the next instant by another rabbit even larger and
more sudden and unexpected in its movements. The Indolent Apprentice
snorted, pawed, whirled, dashed through the open gateway,--the duke's
hands were even less strong than his daughter had thought,--and
galloped, head in air and bit between teeth, up the avenue, the low
carriage rocking from side to side.
“Damn! Damn!” cried the duke, rocking also. “Oh, damn! I shall be killed
in a runaway perambulator!”
And ridiculous as it was, things surged through his brain, and once,
though he laughed at himself bitterly afterward, he gasped “Ah,
Heloise;” as he almost whirled over a jagged tree-stump; gallop and
gallop and gallop, off the road and through trees, and back again on to
the sward, and gallop and gallop and jerk and jolt and jerk, and he
was nearing the house, and a long-legged young man ran down the steps,
pushing aside footmen, and was ahead of the drunken little beast of a
pony, and caught him just as the phaeton overturned and shot his grace
safely though not comfortably in a heap upon the grass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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