Weighed and WantingThis historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... no knowing what altogether unsuitable things men will do!--Who can blame them when they see to how many unsuitable things women consent!" "But, mamma, he is old enough to be my father!" "Of course he is! Poor man! it would be a hard fate to have fallen in love with both mother and daughter in vain!" "I won't go with him, mamma!" "You had better go, my dear. You need not be much afraid. He is really a gentleman, however easily mistaken for something else. You must not forget how much we owe him for Mark!" "Do you mean, mamma," said Hester, with a strange look out of her eyes, "that I ought to marry him if he asks me?" Her mother laughed heartily. Hester was sometimes oddly stupid for a moment as to the intent of those she knew best. "What a goose you are, my darling! Don't you know your mother from a miscreant yet?" But in truth her mother so rarely jested that there was some excuse for her. Eelieved from the passing pang of a sudden dread, Hester went without more words and put on her bonnet. But she did not at all like going, for no one could be certain what absurd thing the major might not do. They set out together, but, until they were some distance from the house, walked in absolute silence, which seemed to Hester to bode no good. How changed the poor man was, she thought. It would be sad indeed to have to make him still more miserable! Steadily the major marched along, his stick under his arm bike a sword, and his eyes looking straight before him. "Cousin Hester," he said at length, "I am about to talk to you very strangely--to conduct myself indeed in a very peculiar manner. Can you imagine a man rendering himself intensely, unpardonably disagreeable, from the very best of motives?" It was a speech very different from any to be expected of... |
