ammered some kind of answer--I don't know what--for I
remember that he said next:
"Quite so, that's my view of matrimony, and I'm glad to see you appear
to share it. . . . Tell the truth, I was afraid you wouldn't," he added,
with something more about the nuns and the convent.
I wanted to say that I didn't, but my nervousness was increasing every
moment, and before I could find words in which to protest he was
speaking to me again.
"Our friends in the library seem to think that you and I could get along
together, and I'm disposed to think they're right--aren't you?"
In my ignorance and helplessness, and with the consciousness of what I
was expected to do, I merely looked at him without speaking.
Then he fixed his monocle afresh, and, looking back at me in a curious
way, he said:
"I don't think I should bore you, my dear. In fact, I should be rather
proud of having a good-looking woman for my wife, and I fancy I could
give you a good time. In any case"--this with a certain
condescension--"my _name_ might be of some use to you."
A sort of shame was creeping over me. The dog was yawning in my face. My
intended husband threw it off his knee.
"Shall we consider it a settled thing, then?" he asked, and when in my
confusion I still made no reply (having nothing which I felt myself
entitled to say), he said something about Aunt Bridget and what she had
told him at luncheon about my silence and shyness, and then rising to
his feet he put my arm through his own, and turned our faces towards
home.
That was all. As I am a truthful woman, that was everything. Not a word
from me, nay, not half a word, merely a passive act of silent
acquiescence, and in my youthful and almost criminal innocence I was
committed to the most momentous incident of my life.
But if there was no love-making, no fondling, no kissing, no courtship
of any kind, and none of the delirious rapture which used to be
described in Alma's novels, I was really grateful for that, and
immensely relieved to find t
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.