"Pat Murphy - Menagerie" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Pat)

pianoforte and the assembled company listened politely, Lady Dustan and Sir
Radford sat at the back of the room, where they might converse in lowered voices
about the members of Lady Dustan's party. She had brought her two nieces, Mary
and Lydia, and a young man, George Paxton. A second young man, William Gordon,
had joined the party at Sir Radford's request.

"I think you will enjoy the company of Mr. George Paxton, the son of my dear
friend," said Lady Dustan. "He has spent the past few years in the service of
the British Museum doing something frightfully scholarly with plants and animals
that are found in rocks."

"Fossils," Sir Radford ventured.

Lady Dustan fluttered her hand as if brushing away an annoying insect. "I
suppose. He tried to explain it to me once, but I could make no sense of it.
Something about chalk and seashells and dead creatures. He's left the museum in
any case and taken up with the newly established Zoological Society. They're
endeavoring to make a zoological garden in Hyde Park. He's a sweet-tempered,
amiable, young man, though a bit diffident and retiring for his family's tastes.
His mother wished him to go into the law or the army, but neither suited him. He
prefers to putter about with rocks and animals, it seems. Still, I think he has
an open and affectionate heart."

"I can understand wanting to putter about with rocks and animals," Sir Radford
commented, with the slightest edge in his voice.

"Of course you understand, Sir Radford. But Lady Paxton is quite bewildered by
his behavior." Lady Dustan smiled at the back of George Paxton's head. "I do
believe that he and my niece, Lydia, would make a fine match. Their temperaments
would complement one another admirably--she is an excitable girl and I think Mr.
Paxton might help make her less prone to extravagance and passion. And she might
help him approach life in a livelier manner. She's an amiable girl, though not
terribly handsome. She has 10,000 pounds settled on her, and that would make his
family much more willing to indulge his eagerness to study animals, rather than
the law."

"I imagine that would make the young man very happy," Sir Radford observed.

"But I have no match for Lydia's younger sister, Mary. She's a lovely girl,
though quiet by nature." Lady Dustan shifted her gaze to William Gordon. He was
handsome enough, with a fine dark mustache and a military air. "And what can you
tell me of Mr. Gordon,"

"He's a Navy man. He brought me two fine macaws when he returned from South
America. And he says he may bring me a zebra when next he voyages to Africa."

"What of his character.?"
"A steady man on a hunt, I can say that. He's a capital fellow, I think."

Lady Dustan shook her head, dismayed by Sir Radford's lack of useful information