The Imperialist by Sara Jeannette Duncan

Author:Sara Jeannette Duncan [Duncan, Sara Jeannette]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-1-55199-747-6
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
Published: 2014-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

“Lorne,” said Dora Milburn, in her most animated manner, “who do you think is coming to Elgin? Your London friend, Mr. Hesketh! He’s going to stay with the Emmetts, and Mrs. Emmett is perfectly distracted; she says he’s accustomed to so much, she doesn’t know how he will put up with their plain way of living. Though what she means by that, with late dinner and afternoon tea every day of her life, is more than I know.”

“Why, that’s splendid!” replied Lorne. “Good old Hesketh! I knew he thought of coming across this fall, but the brute hasn’t written to me. We’ll have to get him over to our place. When he gets tired of the Emmetts’ plain ways he can try ours – they’re plainer. You’ll like Hesketh; he’s a good fellow, and more go-ahead than most of them.”

“I don’t think I should ask him to stay if I were you, Lorne. Your mother will never consent to change her hours for meals. I wouldn’t dream of asking an Englishman to stay if I couldn’t give him late dinner; they think so much of it. It’s the trial of mother’s life that father will not submit to it. As a girl she was used to nothing else. Afternoon tea we do have, he can’t prevent that, but father kicks at anything but one o’clock dinner and meat tea at six, and I suppose he always will.”

“Doesn’t one tea spoil the other?” Lorne inquired. “I find it does when I go to your minister’s and peck at a cress sandwich at five. You haven’t any appetite for a reasonable meal at six. But I guess it won’t matter to Hesketh; he’s got a lot of sense about things of that sort. Why he served out in South Africa – volunteered. Mrs. Emmett needn’t worry. And if we find him pining for afternoon tea we can send him over here.”

“Well, if he’s nice. But I suppose he’s pretty sure to be nice. Any friend of the Emmetts – What is he like, Lorne?”

“Oh, he’s just a young man with a moustache! You seem to see a good many over there. They’re all alike while they’re at school in round coats, and after they leave school they get moustaches, and then they’re all alike again.”

“I wish you wouldn’t tease. How tall is he? Is he fair or dark? What colour are his eyes?”

Lorne buried his head in his hands in a pretended agony of recollection.

“So far as I remember, not exactly tall, but you wouldn’t call him short. Complexion – well, don’t you know? – that kind of middling complexion. Colour of his eyes – does anybody ever notice a thing like that? You needn’t take my word for it, but I should say they were a kind of average coloured eyes.”

“Lorne! You are – I suppose I’ll just have to wait till I see him. But the girls are wild to know, and I said I’d ask you. He’ll be here in about two weeks anyhow, and I dare say we won’t find him so much to make a fuss about.

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