"Stoker, Bram - The Lady Of The Shroud" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stoker Bram)

"My Aunt Janet, sir, is an aunt by love. Courtesy is a small word to
use in connection with such devotion as she has given to us. But I
needn't trouble you with such things, sir. I take it that my
relations on the side of my own house do not affect you. I am a Sent
Leger!" Father looked quite taken aback. He sat quite still before
he spoke.

"Well, Mr. St. Leger, I shall think over the matter for a while, and
shall presently let you know my decision. In the meantime, would you
like something to eat? I take it that as you must have started very
early, you have not had any breakfast?" Rupert smiled quite
genially:

"That is true, sir. I haven't broken bread since dinner last night,
and I am ravenously hungry." Father rang the bell, and told the
footman who answered it to send the housekeeper. When she came,
father said to her:

"Mrs. Martindale, take this boy to your room and give him some
breakfast." Rupert stood very still for some seconds. His face had
got red again after his paleness. Then he bowed to my father, and
followed Mrs. Martindale, who had moved to the door.

Nearly an hour afterwards my father sent a servant to tell him to
come to the study. My mother was there, too, and I had gone back
with her. The man came back and said:

"Mrs. Martindale, sir, wishes to know, with her respectful service,
if she may have a word with you." Before father could reply mother
told him to bring her. The housekeeper could not have been far off--
that kind are generally near a keyhole--for she came at once. When
she came in, she stood at the door curtseying and looking pale.
Father said:

"Well?"

"I thought, sir and ma'am, that I had better come and tell you about
Master Sent Leger. I would have come at once, but I feared to
disturb you."

"Well?" Father had a stern way with servants. When I'm head of the
family I'll tread them under my feet. That's the way to get real
devotion from servants!

"If you please, sir, I took the young gentleman into my room and
ordered a nice breakfast for him, for I could see he was half
famished--a growing boy like him, and so tall! Presently it came
along. It was a good breakfast, too! The very smell of it made even
me hungry. There were eggs and frizzled ham, and grilled kidneys,
and coffee, and buttered toast, and bloater-paste--"