"Beaten you already?" Iris repeated. "Tell me plainly what you mean?"

"Here it is, if you please, as plainly as words can say it. Mr. Vimpany

has something--something wicked, of course--to say to my master; and he

won't let it pass his lips here, in the cottage."

"Why not?"

"Because he suspects me of listening at the door, and looking through

the keyhole. I don't know, my lady, that he doesn't even suspect You.

'I've learnt something in the course of my life,' he says to my master;

'and it's a rule with me to be careful of what I talk about indoors,

when there are women in the house. What are you going to do

to-morrow?' he says. My lord told him there was to be a meeting at the

newspaper office. The doctor says: 'I'll go to Paris with you. The

newspaper office isn't far from the Luxembourg Gardens. When you have

done your business, you will find me waiting at the gate. What I have

to tell you, you shall hear out of doors in the Gardens--and in an open

part of them, too, where there are no lurking-places among the trees.'

My master seemed to get angry at being put off in this way. 'What is it

you have got to tell me?' he says. 'Is it anything like the proposal

you made, when you were on your last visit here?' The doctor laughed.

'To-morrow won't be long in coming,' he says. 'Patience, my

lord--patience.' There was no getting him to say a word more. Now, what

am I to do? How am I to get a chance of listening to him, out in an

open garden, without being seen? There's what I mean when I say he has

beaten me. It's you, my lady--it's you who will suffer in the end."

"You don't know that, Fanny."

"No, my lady--but I'm certain of it. And here I am, as helpless as

yourself! My temper has been quiet, since my misfortune; it would be

quiet still, but for this." The one animating motive, the one

exasperating influence, in that sad and secret life was still the

mistress's welfare--still the safety of the generous woman who had

befriended and forgiven her. She turned aside from the table, to hide

her ghastly face.

"Pray try to control yourself." As Iris spoke, she pointed kindly to a

chair. "There is something that I want to say when you are composed

again. I won't hurry you; I won't look at you. Sit down, Fanny."




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024