Darkness and Daylight by Mary Jane Holmes
page 310 of 470 (65%)
page 310 of 470 (65%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
the latter to his presence, he bade him sit down, himself
hesitating, stammering and blushing like a woman, as he tried to speak of Edith. Victor might have helped him, but he would not, as he sat, rather enjoying his master's confusion, until the latter said, abruptly, "Victor, how would you like to have a mistress here--a bona fide one, I mean, such as my wife would be?" "That depends something upon who it was," Victor exclaimed, as if this were the first intimation he had received of it. "What would you say to Edith?" Richard continued, and Victor replied with well-feigned surprise, "Miss Hastings! You would not ask that little girl to be your wife! Why you are twenty-five years her senior." "No, no, Victor, only twenty-one," and Richard's voice trembled, for like Edith, he wished to be reassured and upheld even by his inferiors. He knew Victor disapproved, that he considered it a great sacrifice on Edith's part, but for this he had no intention of giving her up. On the contrary it made him a very little vexed that his valet should presume to question his acts, and he said with more asperity of manner than was usual for him, "You think it unsuitable, I perceive, and perhaps it is, but if we are satisfied, it is no one's else business, I think," |
|