“Marcus is gone off to England. He bid me give you his kindest love: he
was hurried, and regretted he could not come to take leave of you; but
he was obliged to go off with the Annalys, to escort her ladyship to
England, where he will remain this year, I dare say. I am much concerned
to say, that poor Lady Annaly and Miss Annaly--” Sir Ulick cleared his
throat, and gave a suspicious look at Ormond.
This glance at Harry, the moment Sir Ulick pronounced the words _Miss
Annaly_, first directed aright the attention of Cornelius.
“Lady Annaly and Miss Annaly! are they ill? What’s the matter, for
Heaven’s sake!” exclaimed Harry with great anxiety; but pronouncing both
the ladies’ names precisely in the same tone, and with the same freedom
of expression.
Sir Ulick took breath. “Neither of the ladies are ill--absolutely ill;
but they have both been greatly shocked by accounts of young Annaly’s
sudden illness. It is feared an inflammation upon his lungs, brought on
by violent cold--his mother and sister left us this morning--set off
for England to him immediately. Lady Annaly thought of you, Harry,
my boy--you must be a prodigious favourite--in the midst of all her
affliction, and the hurry of this sudden departure, this morning: she
gave me a letter for you, which I determined to deliver with my own
hands.”
While he spoke, Sir Ulick, affecting to search for the letter among
many in his pocket, studied with careless intermitting glances our young
hero’s countenance, and Cornelius O’Shane studied Sir Ulick’s: Harry
tore open the letter eagerly, and coloured a good deal when he saw the
inside.
“I have no business here reading that boy’s secrets in his face,” cried
Cornelius O’Shane, raising himself on his crutches--“I’ll step out and
look at my roof. Will you come, Sir Ulick, and see how the job goes on?”
His crutch slipped as he stepped across the hearth--Harry ran to him:
“Oh, sir, what are you doing? You are not able to walk yet without
me--why are you going? Secrets did you say?” (The words recurred to
his ear.) “I have no secrets--there’s no secrets in this letter--it’s
only--the reason I looked foolish was that here’s a list of my own
faults, which I made like a fool, and dropped like a fool--but they
could not have fallen into better or kinder hands than Lady Annaly’s.”
He offered the letter and its enclosure to Cornelius and Sir Ulick.
Cornelius drew back. “I don’t want to see the list of your faults, man,”
said he: “do you think I haven’t them all by heart already? and as to
the lady’s letter, while you live never show a lady’s letter.”
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