A Country Gentleman and His Family by Margaret Oliphant

Author:Margaret Oliphant [Oliphant, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Tags: Marriage -- Fiction
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2025-01-27T00:08:41+00:00

XXVII

A minute after he was in the room where Lady Markland sat with her great writing table against the light. He did not know how he got there. It seemed impossible that it could have been by mere walking out of one room into another in the ordinary mechanical way. She rose up, dark against the light, when he went in, which was not at all her habit, but he was not sufficiently self-possessed to be aware of that. She turned towards him, which perhaps was an involuntary, instinctive precaution, for against the full daylight in the great window he could but imperfectly see her features. The precaution was unnecessary. His eyes were not clear enough to perceive what was before him. He saw his conception of her, serene in a womanly majesty far above his troubled state of passion, and was quite incapable of perceiving the sympathetic trouble in her face. She held out her hand to him before he could say anything, and said, with a little catch in her breath, “Oh, Mr. Warrender! I⁠—Geoff⁠—we were not sure whether we should see you today.”

This was a perfectly unintentional speech and quite uncalled for; for nobody could be more regular, more punctual, than Warrender. It was the first thing she could find to say.

“Did you think I could stay away?” he asked, in a low and hurried tone, which was not at all the beginning he had intended. Then he added, “But I have given Geoff a holiday, if you can accord me a little time⁠—if I may speak to you.”

“Geoff is not like other boys,” she said, with a nervous laugh, still standing with her back to the light. “He does not rejoice in a holiday like most children; you have made him love his work.”

“It is not about Geoff,” he said. “I have⁠—something to say to you, if you will hear me. I⁠—cannot be silent any longer.”

“Oh,” she said, “you are going to tell me⁠—I know what it is you are going to say⁠—that this cannot continue. I knew that must come sooner or later. Mr. Warrender, you don’t need to be told how grateful I am; I thank you, from the bottom of my heart. You have done so much for us. It was clear that it could not⁠—go on forever.” She put out her hand for her chair, and drew it closer, and sat down, still with her back to the window; and now even in his preoccupation with his own overwhelming excitement he saw that she trembled a little, and that there was agitation in her tone.

“Lady Markland, it is not that. It is more than that. The moment has come when I must⁠—when I cannot keep it up any longer. Ah!” for she made a little movement with her hand as if to impose silence. “Must it be so? must I go unheard?” He came closer to her, holding out his hands in the eloquence of nature, exposing his agitated countenance to the full revelation of the light.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.