Between first my politician-mother and her band
of tonsured swindlers, and then my cantankerous brother
and his crew of snarling and sour-minded preachers,
and all the court liars and parasites and spies that both
sides surrounded me with, I have lived an existence
that isn't life at all. I purport to be a woman,
but I have never been suffered to see a genuine man.
And now here is one--or what I think to be one--and I'm
given to understand that he is a pirate and a murderer
and an unspeakable ruffian generally--but he takes
my fancy, and he has beckoned to me to come to him,
and so you will kindly get me my hat and jacket and gloves.'
That's what she would have said to you, my dear."
"And I"--said Celia, rising after a moment's pause,
and putting her hand upon Edith's arm--"I would have answered,
'Dearest lady, in whatever befalls, I pray you never to forget
that I am to the end your fond and devoted and loyal servant.'"
CHAPTER XIX
AUGUST wore itself out in parched tedium, and a September
began which seemed even more unbearable in town,--and
still Thorpe did not get away from London.
So far as the payment of an exorbitant rent in advance,
and the receipt of innumerable letters from a restless and
fussy steward whom he had not yet seen, went as evidence,
he knew himself to be the tenant in possession of a great
shooting in Morayshire.
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