Americans -- England -- Fiction; Children of the rich -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Sisters -- Fiction
“His chain broke as he was coming down the incline, and as he fell he
got a nasty knock on this stone,” touching with his foot a rather large
one, which had evidently fallen from some cartload of building material.
The young man, still vacantly smiling, was fumbling at his breast
pocket. He began to talk incoherently in good, nasal New York, at
the mere sound of which Lady Anstruthers made a little yearning step
forward.
“Superior any other,” he muttered. “Tabulator spacer--marginal release
key--call your 'tention--instantly--'justable--Delkoff--no equal on
market.” And having found what he had fumbled for, he handed a card to
Miss Vanderpoel and sank unconscious on her breast.
“Let me support him, Miss Vanderpoel,” said Westholt, starting forward.
“Never mind, thank you,” said Betty. “If he has fainted I suppose he
must be laid flat on the ground. Will you please to read the card.”
It was the card Mount Dunstan had read the day before.
J. BURRIDGE & SON,
DELKOFF TYPEWRITER CO.
BROADWAY, NEW YORK. G. SELDEN.
“He is probably G. Selden,” said Westholt. “Travelling in the interests
of his firm, poor chap. The clue is not of much immediate use, however.”
They were fortunately not far from the house, and Westholt went back
quickly to summon servants and send for the village doctor. The Dunholms
were kindly sympathetic, and each of the party lent a handkerchief to
staunch the bleeding. Lord Dunholm helped Miss Vanderpoel to lay the
young man down carefully.
“I am afraid,” he said; “I am really afraid his leg is broken. It was
twisted under him. What can be done with him?”
Miss Vanderpoel looked at her sister.
“Will you allow him to be carried to the house temporarily, Rosy?” she
asked. “There is apparently nothing else to be done.”
“Yes, yes,” said Lady Anstruthers. “How could one send him away, poor
fellow! Let him be carried to the house.”
Miss Vanderpoel smiled into Lord Dunholm's much approving, elderly eyes.
“G. Selden is a compatriot,” she said. “Perhaps he heard I was here and
came to sell me a typewriter.”
Lord Westholt returning with two footmen and a light mattress, G. Selden
was carried with cautious care to the house. The afternoon sun,
breaking through the branches of the ancestral oaks, kindly touched his
keen-featured, white young face. Lord Dunholm and Lord Westholt each
lent a friendly hand, and Miss Vanderpoel, keeping near, once or twice
wiped away an insistent trickle of blood which showed itself from
beneath the handkerchiefs. Lady Dunholm followed with Lady Anstruthers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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