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

wouldn't take any more--and then he said good-bye. At the door he
turned and walked back to me, and put his arms round me like a real
boy does, and gave me a hug, and says he:

"'Thank you a thousand times, Mrs. Martindale, for your goodness to
me, for your sympathy, and for the way you have spoken of my father
and mother. You have seen me cry, Mrs. Martindale,' he said; 'I
don't often cry: the last time was when I came back to the lonely
house after my poor dear was laid to rest. But you nor any other
shall ever see a tear of mine again.' And with that he straightened
out his big back and held up his fine proud head, and walked out. I
saw him from the window striding down the avenue. My! but he is a
proud boy, sir--an honour to your family, sir, say I respectfully.
And there, the proud child has gone away hungry, and he won't, I
know, ever use that shilling to buy food!"

Father was not going to have that, you know, so he said to her:

"He does not belong to my family, I would have you to know. True, he
is allied to us through the female side; but we do not count him or
his in my family." He turned away and began to read a book. It was
a decided snub to her.

But mother had a word to say before Mrs. Martindale was done with.
Mother has a pride of her own, and doesn't brook insolence from
inferiors; and the housekeeper's conduct seemed to be rather
presuming. Mother, of course, isn't quite our class, though her folk
are quite worthy and enormously rich. She is one of the
Dalmallingtons, the salt people, one of whom got a peerage when the
Conservatives went out. She said to the housekeeper:

"I think, Mrs. Martindale, that I shall not require your services
after this day month! And as I don't keep servants in my employment
when I dismiss them, here is your month's wages due on the 25th of
this month, and another month in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt."
She was writing a receipt as she spoke. The other signed it without
a word, and handed it to her. She seemed quite flabbergasted.
Mother got up and sailed--that is the way that mother moves when she
is in a wax--out of the room.

Lest I should forget it, let me say here that the dismissed
housekeeper was engaged the very next day by the Countess of Salop.
I may say in explanation that the Earl of Salop, K.G., who is Lord-
Lieutenant of the County, is jealous of father's position and his
growing influence. Father is going to contest the next election on
the Conservative side, and is sure to be made a Baronet before long.


Letter from Major-General Sir Colin Alexander MacKelpie, V.C.,
K.C.B., of Croom, Ross, N.B., to Rupert Sent Leger, Esq., 14, Newland