H. B. Marriott Watson

“ Lady Cecilia gave vent to an exclamation of alarm and annoyance, but Evelyn, who had materially suffered, said nothing. Her colour was still bright. Messiter elevated his eyebrows at Molly.
"It's all big-game shooting," he murmured.
"Well he's only shot a few tea-cups," said Molly derisively.
"You forget Lady Evelyn," said he.
"Oh, she's not——" Molly paused.
"All women are big game, you know," he said sententiously.
Molly pondered this. "To be shot?"
"To be shot at," he amended. "They're rarely hit. But they are captured sometimes, and then they adorn halls and drawing-rooms like this." ”

“ Molly took refuge from this unintelligible irony in a dignified retreat. Tiggy was all very well when he admired you, and assisted you, and did the thousand things he had been accustomed to do since they were all small children; but Tiggy became tiresome when he was in these moods. Molly banged the library door on him.
But it was easily seen presently that the Duke had abandoned big game; and if he could not be said to be after small game, he was certainly devoting a good deal of his time to Lady Templeton's second daughter, a fact which Evelyn was the first to perceive. ”

“ Messiter laughed softly; he had picked up the shoe.
"I'm awfully sorry," said Molly contritely.
"Well, it wasn't the Duke's boot, you see," said Messiter gravely. Tiggy turned his eyeglass from one to the other.
"I'm glad to find in my old age that you're all growing so studious," he said, glancing at the bookshelves. "Mr. Messiter was anxious to see this haunt of ancient peace. You see its attractions, Messiter." Tiggy passed in. "Eilean, I suspect you of having tampered with this bookcase of books on primitive sociology. What have we there?" ”

“ By H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON.
"SHE'S as cross as two sticks at your going," observed Delia to her sister, Lady Molly Calverley. "I could tell from the way she banged the door."
"Let her," said Molly indifferently, as with one leg crossed on the other in the privacy of her room she laced her boots. "Evelyn's nothing to do with me now I'm nearly nineteen."
Delia, who was only sixteen, regarded her with admiration. "You wouldn't dare to go away on your own and leave her?" she suggested interrogatively. ”

“ Ere he was half-way to her she saw the danger, and was curving gently away when the unexpected happened—his feet went up and out behind, and with two giant strides he had reached her, grabbed wildly in the air, and seized her. ”

“ He's just come back from Africa, shooting big game."
"And now he's big game himself, I suppose," said Molly.
"If you can think of nothing less vulgar to say, perhaps you'd better not speak at all," said her sister severely as they passed in.
The skaters were in full flight, and a goodly number of spectators were gathered in knots or seated in chairs, comfortably watching the sport; and very soon both Molly and her sister were speeding gracefully along the ice. Evelyn was an admirable skater, and Molly was not ashamed of her own prowess. ”

“ Skating's a poor sort of business, ain't it?" he asked of Molly.
"I'm extremely fond of it," she returned.
"You'll come, won't you, Lady Evelyn?" Lady Cecilia was saying. "I'm giving my brother and Mr. Messiter tea in my Club, where we occasionally allow undistinguished members of the other sex. You'll come and have tea too?"
Evelyn looked brilliant. "Certainly, with pleasure," she answered; "tea fits my mood to a 't' after all this exercise." She smiled at the Duke, who, noticing another handsome girl, crossed to her.
Mr. Messiter turned to Molly. ”

“ They get positively gored sometimes. That makes them happy."
"Happy!" she echoed.
"Yes; we like risks."
"Women take risks too," said Molly firmly. Her companion was looking at Evelyn, who was exchanging sallies with the Duke and his sister.
"Do tell me about your big-game shooting, Duke," said Evelyn sweetly.
"Oh, well, you just go out and shoot them, you know," said the Duke vaguely.
"It's so easy, you see," murmured Messiter to Molly, with a nod towards the Duke. ”

“ But it was not quite.
"Did the Duke——" she paused as she put half a question to her sister in a coldly amiable way,
"The Duke had a whisky-and-soda, to which he seems attached, and went," said Molly curtly.
"He probably was not quite ready. He's very awkward," Evelyn told her mother. "Molly showed bad temper over it. Perhaps we've been mistaken. She's flung herself too obviously at him."
But there was something to hope for from the dance which came off the following week. Both the Duke and Mr. Messiter attended it, and there was not only a conservatory, but a long picture-gallery. ”