登陆注册
26289300000136

第136章 CHAPTER XXXIV(4)

"You smell the autocrat? Yes, he can mould and govern the creatures about him. His toughest rebel is himself! If you see Clara ... You wish to see her, I think you said?"

"Her behaviour to Lady Busshe last night was queer."

"If you will. She makes a mouth at porcelain. Toujours la porcelaine! For me, her pettishness is one of her charms, I confess it. Ten years younger, I could not have compared them."

"Whom?"

"Laetitia and Clara."

"Sir Willoughby, in any case, to quote you, here we are all upon the road, and we must act as if events were going to happen; and I must ask her to help me on the subject of my wedding-present, for I don't want to have her ****** mouths at mine, however pretty--and she does it prettily."

"'Another dedicatory offering to the rogue in me!' she says of porcelain."

"Then porcelain it shall not be. I mean to consult her; I have come determined upon a chat with her. I think I understand. But she produces false impressions on those who don't know you both.

'I shall have that porcelain back,' says Lady Busshe to me, when we were shaking hands last night: 'I think,' says she, 'it should have been the Willow Pattern.' And she really said: 'He's in for being jilted a second time!'"

Sir Willoughby restrained a bound of his body that would have sent him up some feet into the air. He felt his skull thundered at within.

"Rather than that it should fan upon her!" ejaculated he, correcting his resemblance to the high-caste culprit as soon as it recurred to him.

"But you know Lady Busshe," said Mrs. Mountstuart, genuinely solicitous to ease the proud man of his pain. She could see through him to the depth of the skin, which his fencing sensitiveness vainly attempted to cover as it did the heart of him. "Lady Busshe is nothing without her flights, fads, and fancies. She has always insisted that you have an unfortunate nose. I remember her saying on the day of your majority, it was the nose of a monarch destined to lose a throne."

"Have I ever offended Lady Busshe?"

"She trumpets you. She carries Lady Culmer with her too, and you may expect a visit of nods and hints and pots of alabaster. They worship you: you are the hope of England in their eyes, and no woman is worthy of you: but they are a pair of fatalists, and if you begin upon Letty Dale with them, you might as well forbid your banns. They will be all over the country exclaiming on predestination and marriages made in heaven."

"Clara and her father!" cried Sir Willoughby.

Dr Middleton and his daughter appeared in the circle of shrubs and flowers.

"Bring her to me, and save me from the polyglot," said Mrs Mountstuart, in afright at Dr. Middleton's manner of pouring forth into the ears of the downcast girl.

The leisure he loved that he might debate with his genius upon any next step was denied to Willoughby: he had to place his trust in the skill with which he had sown and prepared Mrs Mountstuart's understanding to meet the girl--beautiful abhorred that she was! detested darling! thing to squeeze to death and throw to the dust, and mourn over!

He had to risk it; and at an hour when Lady Busshe's prognostic grievously impressed his intense apprehensiveness of nature.

As it happened that Dr. Middleton's notion of a disagreeable duty in colloquy was to deliver all that he contained, and escape the listening to a syllable of reply, Willoughby withdrew his daughter from him opportunely.

"Mrs. Mountstuart wants you, Clara."

"I shall be very happy," Clara replied, and put on a new face. An imperceptible nervous shrinking was met by another force in her bosom, that pushed her to advance without a sign of reluctance.

She seemed to glitter.

She was handed to Mrs. Mountstuart.

Dr Middleton laid his hand over Willoughby's shoulder, retiring on a bow before the great lady of the district. He blew and said: "An opposition of female instincts to masculine intellect necessarily creates a corresponding antagonism of intellect to instinct."

"Her answer, sir? Her reasons? Has she named any?"

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 计诱败金腐女

    计诱败金腐女

    她是一个被家人遗弃,不被喜欢的“倒霉”女人,最后慢慢变成一个整天只知道窝在家里,大门不出二门不迈,整日游手好闲,思想散漫,毫无上进心的败金腐。他是一个集万千宠爱于一身的“美丽”男人,为了弥补父亲的过错,他甘愿放弃庞大的家族继承权,当一个靠脸吃饭的大明星。
  • 青春时的年华

    青春时的年华

    上学时代的我,从军训的时候到毕业,从同学到朋友,在从学校走向社会的我们.......
  • 把你的手给我

    把你的手给我

    他是ZY集团的总裁她是他的同学兼女友......
  • 星战文明

    星战文明

    沈征,繁华都市中一个受人轻视的打工仔,为了亲人踏上了强者之路,以一种令人惊惧的速度,崛起于白狼星,终将书写位面王者的传奇。
  • 宦世如来

    宦世如来

    去把你的袈裟拿来给我穿。好嘞!小娘亲。去把你的经文拿来给我念。好嘞!小龙女。去把你的光头拿来给我玩。好嘞!小妖怪。咦!妖怪?看打![更新时间每日中午十二点,每日下午八点]
  • 晓色朦胧

    晓色朦胧

    时间,总会将我们年轻时的小心思打磨得什么都不剩。当时间在我们的身上悄无声息地流逝,当小时候的理想变成泡沫般易碎的幻影,前路仍漫漫。你,是否会怀念起小时候的那个天真懵懂的自己?时间,总会告诉你答案。本文为八千字左右的短篇,不定时更新。现主存稿现言长篇。
  • 弑神家族

    弑神家族

    成年后被父母意外告知自己所在的家族是所谓的弑神家族,千里第一次对命运感到了迷茫,是成为弑神者处处要与神战斗,还是沦落为普通人过完一生.....叶一要怎样选择.....他将何去何从》》》》》》
  • 琴说

    琴说

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 蒙青天涯记

    蒙青天涯记

    讲述一个从小居住在深山之中,与世隔绝的深山小孩,出来寻找母亲,一路发生的,有趣故事,和如何从一个山野小子,变成一代武林大武?又是怎么和自己从小相识的心爱之人,明香会发生如何,唯美动人的爱情故事呢?又会遇到那些,生死困境呢?蒙青又如何化解呢?
  • TFBOYS之我定不弃

    TFBOYS之我定不弃

    继《TFBOYS之你若不离》之后,《TFBOYS之我定不弃》闪亮来袭!TFBOYS,温柔担当王俊凯,傻萌担当王源,高冷担当易烊千玺,作为洛城叱咤风云的三个小霸王,他们不仅颜值爆表,背景雄厚,还是全能天才!各路迷妹闻名而来,偏偏天之骄子的他们就喜欢上不喜欢自己的人!相遇、相识、相知、相守,爱恨纠缠,友情和爱情的界限,终于有一日,他在她耳边霸道宣言:“你,就是我的!”,某女腿一软,男神,求放过……