Thereby Hangs a Tale. Volume OneFenn, George Manville
General
Thereby Hangs a Tale. Volume One
Fenn, George Manville
Fiction
"I'd forgotten all about it, look you," said the old lady, prattling
away, "till Polly wrote to me from her school; and then it all came back
about Chane Lloyd and her paby, and her having the fever when her
mistress died. Why, look you, tidn't I go up to the nursery after peing
town to see the funeral, and find Chane Lloyd hat peen up there, and put
her paby in the young master's cratle? and, look you, titn't I go town
to chite her, and find her all off her heat, and she was ill for weeks?
I thought she'd tone it without knowing, or, peing wild-like, had liked
to see her little one in the young master's clothes. I put that all
right again, and nursed poth pabies till she cot well. Lloyd--Trevor--
tidn't I see them poth as soon as they came into the worlt, and to you
think I ton't know them? Why, look at them!"
She turned to Pratt, who was nearest to her; but she cried out in alarm,
for the little fellow had caught her in his arms and kissed her on both
cheeks, as he cried--
"It isn't Mother Hubbard, Dick, but the good fairy out of the
story-book. God bless you! old lady, for this. Here, Humphrey, see to
your mother."
But Humphrey was pumping away at both Richard Trevor's arms, as he
cried, excitedly--
"Hooray! Master Dick. I never felt so happy in my life. Polly, lass,
we shall get the cottage after all."
He saw the next moment, though, that Mrs Lloyd had fainted dead away;
and his were the arms that carried her to her bedroom, while Polly crept
to the old Welshwoman's side.
"I came, look you, Master Richard, to put all this right," said the old
lady. "Putt it was all nonsense, I teclare to cootness. Anypody might
have seen."
"I--I thank you--I'm contused--dazed, rather," said Trevor, looking from
one to the other. "Polly, my poor girl, I'll try to make up to you for
this disappointment."
"I'm not disappointed, please, Mr Richard, sir," said Mrs Humphrey,
bobbing a curtsey, and then trying a boarding-school salute and failing,
and blushing terribly.
"I'm very happy indeed, and I'm sure Humphrey is--he said so, and he
always tells the truth. And if you please, sir, aunt and I will go now
into the housekeeper's room."
"That you won't, if I have any influence with some one here," said
Pratt. "No, my pretty little wife; you and your brick of a husband
shall go off in triumph; and oh, by Jove! here's the present I brought
down for you."
Frank Pratt's present was a handsome ring, and he was placing it above
the plain one already on her finger, when Humphrey came back.
"She's all right again," he said, huskily. "I was obliged to come away,
for she wanted to go on her knees--and I couldn't stand it. Polly--Aunt
Price--she wants you both. Master Dick, sir, isn't this a day?"
Volume 3, Chapter XX.
CONCLUSION.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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