each other's
acquaintance as far back as ten years ago, when I was the prettiest
little woman in the world, he remembered, though perhaps my manners were
not quite cordial.
"We had a slight difference on the subject of kisses. Don't you remember
it?"
Happily there was no necessity to reply, for my father came to say that
he wished to show his lordship the improvements he had been making, and
the rest of us were at liberty to follow them.
The improvements consisted chiefly of a new wing to the old house,
containing a dining room, still unfurnished, which had been modelled, as
I found later, on the corresponding room in Castle Raa.
With a proud lift of his white head my father pointed out the beauties
of his new possession, while my intended husband, with his monocle to
his eye, looked on with a certain condescension, and answered with a
languid humour that narrowly bordered on contempt.
"Oak, sir, solid oak," said my father, rapping with his knuckles on the
tall, dark, heavy wainscoting.
"As old as our hearts and as hard as our heads, I suppose," said Lord
Raa.
"Harder than some, sir," said my father.
"Exactly," said Lord Raa in his slow drawl, and then there was general
laughter.
The bell rang for luncheon, and we went into the plain old dining room,
where Aunt Bridget placed her principal guest on her right and told him
all about her late husband, the Colonel, his honours and military
achievements.
I could see that Lord Raa was soon very weary of this, and more than
once, sitting by his side, I caught the cynical and rather supercilious
responses to which, under the gloss of his gracious manners, Aunt
Bridget seemed quite oblivious.
I was so nervous and embarrassed that I spoke very little during
luncheon, and even Aunt Bridget observed this at last.
"Mary, dear, why don't you speak?" she said.
But without waiting for my reply she proceeded to explain to his
lordship that the strangest change had come over me since I was a child,
when I had been the
Notka biograficzna
Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine CH, KBE (May 14, 1853August 31, 1931), usually known as Hall Caine, was a British author. He is best known as a novelist and playwright of the late Victorian and the Edwardian eras. In his time he was exceedingly popular and at the peak of his success his novels outsold those of his contemporaries. Many of his novels were also made into films. His novels were primarily romantic in nature, involving the love triangle, but they did also address some of the more serious political and social issues of the day.
Harold MacGrath (September 4, 1871 - October 30, 1932) was a bestselling American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Also known occasionally as Harold McGrath, he was born in Syracuse, New York. As a young man, he worked as a reporter and columnist on the Syracuse Herald newspaper until the late 1890s when he published his first novel, a romance titled Arms and the Woman. According to the New York Times, his next book, The Puppet Crown, was the No.7 bestselling book in the United States for all of 1901. From that point on, MacGrath never looked back, writing novels for the mass market about love, adventure, mystery, spies, and the like at an average rate of more than one a year. He would have three more of his books that were among the top ten bestselling books of the year. At the same time, he penned a number of short stories for major American magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Ladies Home Journal, and Red Book magazine. Several of MacGraths novels were seriali
Mabel Collins (9 September 1851 - 31 March 1927) was a theosophist and author of over 46 books. She was born in St Peter Port, Guernsey.