FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185  
186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   >>   >|  
ou've contrived to improve the little Million in several ways since last I saw you." Oh! So possibly he really had been paying serious court to the heiress. Yes; again I had the foreboding shudder. Complications ahead; what with the Honourable Jim and the Determined Jessop, and the Enamoured Million--to say nothing of the bomb-dropping machine and the fortune that may be lost! "You look thoughtful, Miss Lovelace," said the fortune-hunter who doesn't know there may be no fortune in it. "Mayn't I congratulate you----" "What?" I said, quickly looking up from the luncheon basket that I was repacking. I wondered where he might have heard anything about my Mr. Brace. "Congratulate me?" "Why, on your achievements as a lady's-maid." "Oh! Oh, yes. Very kind of you to say I had effected 'improvements,'" I said as bitingly as I could. "I suppose you mean Miss Million's hands that you were so severe about?" Here my glance fell upon Mr. Burke's own hands, generally gloved. They gave me a shock. They were so surprisingly out of keeping with the rest of his otherwise well-groomed and expensive appearance, for the nails were rough and worn; the fingers stumpy and battered and hard, the palms horny as those of a navvy. The Honourable Jim saw my look. "Yes! You think my own hands are no such beauties. Faith, you're right, child," he said, carelessly flicking the ash from his cigarette off against a flint. "I never could get my hands fit to be seen again after that time I came across as a stoker." "A stoker?" I repeated, staring at the young man. "What on earth were you doing as a stoker?" "Working my passage across home from Canada one time," he told me. "You know I was sent out to Canada by the old man with about five bob a week to keep up the old family traditions and found a new family fortune. Oh, quite so." "What did you do?" I asked. One couldn't help being a little interested in the gyrations of this rolling stone that has acquired polish and nothing else. "Do? Nothing. A bit of everything. Labourer, farm hand. On a ranch, finally," he said, "where they wouldn't give me anything to eat until I'd 'made good.' Yes, they were harder than you are, little black pigeon-girl that I thought had the heart of a stone under the soft black plumage of her. And by 'making good' they meant taking a horse--a chestnut, same coloured coat as your hair, child--that nobody else could ride. I had to stick on her
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185  
186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   209   210   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
fortune
 
Million
 
stoker
 

family

 
Canada
 

Honourable

 
chestnut
 
Working
 

passage

 

making


taking

 
cigarette
 

repeated

 

staring

 

traditions

 
coloured
 

flicking

 

Nothing

 

polish

 

harder


acquired

 

finally

 

Labourer

 

rolling

 

wouldn

 

plumage

 

couldn

 

gyrations

 
pigeon
 
thought

interested

 
hunter
 

Lovelace

 

dropping

 

machine

 

thoughtful

 

congratulate

 

quickly

 

Congratulate

 

wondered


luncheon

 
basket
 

repacking

 

Enamoured

 

possibly

 
contrived
 
improve
 

paying

 

Determined

 
Jessop