Bernard Capes

“ A faith in race kinship dwells warmer in the Colonial than in the insular breast, and many figures had supplanted Jack's in the affections of his lordship since their separation. Riversdale's reception of the girl's letter was significant of the different point of view; it expressed the faint boredom of the aristocrat over the injudicious resurrection of dead intimacies long laid and quite pleasantly forgotten. He tossed the epistle over with a snort to his eldest hope, Lord Kilmeston. ”

“ Miss Watchett, clear-eyed and constitutionally sedate, had applied to the Viscount in this matter of a secretary because her father, Jack Watchett, of Sydney, had once advised her, when in any difficulty of the sort, to do so. He and his lordship were past school-fellows, and chums in the pre-colonial days, and Jack, himself a hard-headed man of business, had always retained the profoundest admiration for the other's practical abilities. ”

“ For the rest her complexion was of a serene pallor, her manner self-possessed, her brow severely calm—decidedly, all in all, an imposing figure; but attractive.
"His Lordship"—she referred to the letter—"acting for his father" ("He is ill," interpolated the visitor murmuringly) , "warmly recommends the bearer of this note, Mr. Charles Lorry" ("Myself," intimated the visitor, ingratiatory) , "for the post of secretary to Miss Watchett. She will find him sober, ingenious, and the best of good fellows." ”

“ I am not worth much in any way; but I can keep a wife, and I ask you to give yourself to me. You are worth a thousand heiresses, and I will try to make you as happy as your sweetness and virtue deserve. ”

“ The Mansion servants do their daily work in the rooms and then go. For the rest of the time I, and my paid companion, Miss Clare Normanby, are alone here together. She is a valuable auxiliary; but what with the correspondence, the unwelcome calls, and the vigilant attendance on personal and household duties expected of her by her employer, her engagement is overtaxing her resources, and I have been reluctantly compelled to consider the necessity of an addition to our ménage. ”

“ Even as she spoke, Miss Watchett herself came into the room. She glanced from one conscious face to the other, and her lips tightened.
"I could wish, Miss Normanby," she said, "that you would interrupt Mr. Lorry less frequently at his work. And do, pray, hurry up with those flowers. You have a dozen things of more importance to attend to."
V Mr. Charles Lorry had been getting on—so far as his main purpose, a critical appreciation of the heiress, was concerned—very well, better than he had ventured, for all his assurance, to expect. ”

“ AN ANONYMOUS LETTER MISS MARY WATCHETT, a young Colonial heiress, had written—from Westminster—to Lord Riversdale, at Kensington, asking him to recommend to her, if he could and would, a capable man secretary. Miss Watchett was new to London and, comparatively, to moneyed independence. ”

“ She is the daughter and heiress of a one-time friend of mine—deceased, it seems. She had much better have remained at home; but, since she's elected to come to England, we must be civil to her, I suppose. Only I'm not going to be called upon to father her interests. Watchett was a good fellow, but rough, and his progeny have scant attractions for me. ”

“ Lorry, with some emotion, "for half the consideration."
"It reaches me—from everywhere," continued Miss Watchett; "and it has to be answered—mostly unkindly. But you understand?"
"Fully."
"You would have to undertake the bulk of it for me. Then there are the personal applications——"
"Leave those to me," decided the visitor firmly. "There I should be upon my own ground."
"They are really the first consideration," said the heiress. ”

“ Your application to Lord Riversdale re a male secretary has been received. His Lordship, being ill at the time, handed it over to his son, Lord Kilmeston, to answer. Lord K. will recommend the bearer of his reply to you for the post in question. But, take warning: the bearer will be no other than Lord Kilmeston himself, passing under an assumed name—that of Mr. Charles Lorry. He, Lord K., has devised this intimate means of satisfying himself as to the possible desirableness of an heiress. Beware the snake in the grass. A well-wisher. ”

“ He was a handsome and attractive young man, possessed of a considerable fund of the calm impudence associated with that class of beings, fruges consumere nati, who unite in their agreeable selves the sense of untroubled appropriation and Quixotic honesty. ”