Massachusetts -- Periodicals; New England -- Periodicals
"Bulchester, we are beginning to burn; something will turn up here. I
can't tell you why, but I feel it."
"You mean that you have a clue? That the name amounts to anything?"
cried the other excitedly. "That you have found--?"
"Hush!" interrupted Edmonson. "Lady Dacre! Yes, I have found the air
here delightful. My tedious headache is wearing away already. And here
comes her ladyship to make us appreciate our blessings still more. Say,
Bul," he added in a quick undertone as he was about moving forward to
meet the new-comer, "how good does one have to be among this set? Have
you any idea?"
"No, but I assure you your best will not pall."
Edrnonson's smile of welcome to the lady broadened. "The fellow has
quickness sometimes," he thought, "he has caught that from me."
"They are all following," said Lady Dacre. "But our kind host joined us
just now, and he and his mother are arranging the hour for the sail,
that is, if the wind will favor us."
"I should not think Archdale would be over fond of sailing," remarked
Edmonson dryly.
"Why not?" asked Lady Dacre, then recollecting the story, added
suddenly, "Do you think that is a real marriage, Mr. Edmonson?"
"I am sure I don't know," responded that gentleman nonchalently.
"You see," explained Bulchester, "if that man is really a parson, they
have not much of a set of witnesses to prove that the ceremony was a
joke. Harwin minus, though he has left his confession; Waldo interested
in proving it a real marriage; Mistress Katie interested the other way,
and the Eveleigh,--you have not seen the Eveleigh?"
Lady Dacre replied that she had not had that pleasure. As she spoke she
intercepted a flashing glance from Edmonson to Bulchester. But she did
not overhear the conversation between the two that took place later.
"Bulchester," Edmonson hissed out when they were alone, "what's the
reason you always retail my opinions?"
Bulchester opened his mild eyes.
"Did I say any harm?" he asked. "I am sure I didn't mean it; what
objection can you have to my giving your opinion on that matter, and I
did not even say it was yours."
"Because--I do object," returned the other moodily. Then he said nothing
more, rather to conceal the strength of his objections, than because his
anger was over.
This happened a few hours later. At the same time Lady Dacre was
speaking to her husband about Elizabeth. "I think that Archdale must
feel the situation most on account of the young betrothed," Sir Temple
said.
"That is all you know of a woman," she retorted indignantly. "Suppose I
were tied to you and knew you did not care for me, I need not have come
three thousand miles to find water enough."
"To drink?"
"No, you wretch; to drown myself in."
"You take too much for granted, dont you?" drawled Sir Temple with an
amused look. "And I am afraid you are aping Ophelia. Now, you are not in
her line at all; for one thing, you are too handsome."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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