The advertisement was at last fairly written out, with the exception of
the address to be given. "Papa may surely tell me where they are to
apply," Cicely said, though with doubts in her mind as to whether he was
good even for this; and then she wrote her letters, one of which was in
Mr. St. John's name to the lawyer who had written to him about the
furniture, asking that the sale might not take place until the curate's
half-year, which ended in the end of September, should be out. Mr. St.
John would not do this himself. "Why should I ask any favour of those
people who do not know me?" he said; but he had at length consented that
Cicely might write "if she liked;" and in any case the lawyer's letter
had to be answered. Cicely made this appeal as business-like as
possible. "I wonder how a man would write who did not mind much--to whom
this was only a little convenience," she said to her sister. "I don't
want to go and ask as if one was asking a favour of a friend--as if we
cared."
"But we do care; and it would be a favour----"
"Never mind. I wish we knew what a man would say that was quite
independent and did not care. 'If it is the same to you, it would be
more convenient for me not to have the furniture disturbed till the 22nd
of September'--that is the kind of thing. We girls always make too much
of a favour of everything," said Cicely, writing; and she produced an
admirable imitation of a business letter, to which she appended her own
signature, "Cecil St. John," which was also her father's, with great
boldness. The curate's handwriting was almost more womanlike than hers,
for Cicely's generation are not taught to write Italian hands, and I do
not think the lawyer suspected the sex of the production. When she had
finished this, she wrote upon another sheet of paper, "My dear Aunt, I
am----" and then she stopped sharply. "It is cool now, let us take them
out for a walk on the common," she said, shutting up her desk. "I can
finish this to-night."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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