E. Phillips Oppenheim

“ The farm-house had been built on the ruins of an old château and masses and pinnacles of the cool, gray stone still remained. It was a place which seemed to breathe the very atmosphere of rest. Claire rose to her feet with a little sigh of regret when at last Cardinge appeared.
“I cannot tell you why,” she remarked, “but it seems so much more peaceful down here than at the villa. You don't want a housekeeper, do you, Hugh?” ”

“ She listened eagerly.
“Because,” he said, “if I were Armand's age and if I were not next door to a pauper, I should want to marry you myself.”
“I should never marry any one so young as Armand,” she told him, “and—I have plenty of money.”
He laughed a little hardly.
“We don't understand that sort of marriage in England,” he said. “If a man has nothing to give, he offers nothing.”
“You have your dear self,” she whispered, with a little sob in her throat.
MADAME leaned over the balcony and called to Claire. To Cardinge's surprise, Eric Brownleys descended the steps and advanced to meet him. ”

“ Claire continued, “that I must walk through these days of my life with my eyes shut. But how can I, Hugh? I am not a child any longer. Aunt forgets sometimes my age. She often treats me as though I were a child.”
“When is Armand coming home, Claire?” he asked her abruptly.
“When I promise to marry him, he says,” she replied flippantly. “If he means it, then it will be never.”
“That will be a great disappointment to him,” Cardinge said gravely. ”

“ GEOFFREY FRANCIS, Earl of Westerton, like many a man of his age, state of health, and profession—he had been a guardsman in his younger days—was disposed to be irritable. Three times he had blown the whistle of the speaking tube which was supposed to communicate with his chauffeur, and on none of these occasions had the man taken the slightest notice. ”

“ Cardinge seemed unconsciously to stiffen, Brownleys laid his hand upon his shoulder.
“Look here, Cardinge,” he continued, “I don't know a damned thing about the trouble there was in the past between you and your father, but although we're sort of distant connections I wouldn't have dreamed of interfering if it hadn't been rather thrust upon me. But after all, you know, we're none of us getting any younger and the old man—I beg his pardon—Lord Westerton, has been shaky for a year or two. ”

“ Just because you are doing a few days' work—probably for the first time in your life—you pretend that the place can't get on without you for an hour or so. What do you think could possibly happen to the peas and the strawberries and the artichokes, the vines and the beans and the little field of corn? ”