The Greatest Heiress in EnglandOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
General
The Greatest Heiress in England
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
England -- Fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
The voice of the reader went on again, the hearers fell into
their previous half drowse of attention; and the young man who had
nothing at all to do with it, but who was the nearest relation of the
orphans, stood in his black clothes leaning against the door. And there
was not any drowse about Philip; he listened, and he made out every
word.
When the codicils approached a conclusion, the drowse disappeared from
the company in general. It began to introduce their own names, which is
a sure way of interesting people. When the clause was read, which
described the future course of Lucy’s life, how it was to be spent and
where, there was a little stir among those who were immediately
concerned. Lady Randolph sat up more erect in her chair, and held her
head higher with a complacence and sense of importance which it would
have been impossible to express more delicately; the Fords, less
well-bred, looked at each other, and Mrs. Ford began to cry. The
spectators all listened keenly; their surprise and their curiosity rose
to a higher heat. Then came the appointment of the marriage committee,
at which the little thrill which had been visible in the others
communicated itself to all the company. Each individual sat up,
straightened his or her back, holding up their several heads, and
listened with a sense of importance and satisfaction, mingled with, in
some of them, a perception of the ludicrous side of the arrangement; and
after this there was little more.
During the whole of the proceedings Philip Rainy, undisturbed and
undisturbing, stood up leaning against the door. It was all new to him,
and much of it was far from agreeable; but he made no sign. He had no
business to be there--all these strangers, he could not but feel with a
little bitterness, had come by invitation, and had a right to the place
they occupied; but he had nothing to do with it. Nevertheless it was
something, it was a tacit acknowledgment that he had something to do
with it that no one remonstrated or took any notice of his presence. And
he took no notice, made no remark; but listened with the keenest
attention. Yes, there was one on whom none of the provisions were lost,
who never felt drowsy, but listened with his very ears tingling, and his
mind concentrated upon what he heard; he missed nothing, the technical
wording did not confuse him, each new particular stirred up his thoughts
to a rapidity and energy of action such as he had never before been
conscious of. He stood betraying nothing, looking at all the complacent
assembly, which regarded him as an outsider; and as each new detail was
read, swiftly, silently opposed to it in his mind a system of
counteraction. All these people with their little glow and sense of
satisfaction were to him like so many lay-figures round the table:
dream-people not worth taking into consideration. But on the other side
he seemed to see old Trevor chuckling, and waving a visionary hand at
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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