Her Ladyship's Elephant

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Wells David Dwight. Her Ladyship's Elephant

A WORD TO THE WISE

CHAPTER I. IN WHICH THE SAME QUESTION IS ANSWERED IN TWO WAYS

CHAPTER II. IN WHICH THE CONSUL LOSES A RELATIVE AND GAINS A WIFE

CHAPTER III. IN WHICH THE LONDON AND SOUTH WESTERN RAIL-WAY ACCOMPLISHES WHAT THE MARRIAGE SERVICE FORBIDS

CHAPTER IV. IN WHICH LADY MELTON FEELS THAT HER AVERSION IS JUSTIFIED

CHAPTER V. IN WHICH A TRUNK IS SENT TO MELTON COURT

CHAPTER VI. IN WHICH MR. SCARSDALE CHANGES HIS NAME

CHAPTER VII. IN WHICH MR. SCARSDALE REAPS ANOTHER'S WHIRLWIND

CHAPTER VIII. IN WHICH A SERIOUS CHARGE IS LAID AT THE CONSUL'S DOOR

CHAPTER IX. IN WHICH THE CONSUL AND MRS. SCARSDALE EMULATE THE KING OF FRANCE AND TWENTY THOUSAND OF HIS COMPATRIOTS

CHAPTER X. IN WHICH LADY MELTON RECEIVES A STRANGE VISITOR

CHAPTER XI. IN WHICH THERE ARE TWO CLAIMANTS FOR ONE DINNER

Отрывок из книги

Harold Stanley Malcolm St. Hubart Scarsdale, Esq., of "The Towers," Sussex, sat uncomfortably on a very comfortable chair. His patent-leather boots were manifestly new, his trousers fresh from the presser, his waistcoat immaculate, while his frock coat with its white gardenia, and his delicate grey suede gloves, completed an admirable toilet. He was, in short, got up for the occasion, a thoroughly healthy, muscular, well-groomed animal; good-natured too, fond in his big-hearted boyish way of most other animals, and enough of a sportsman to find no pleasure in winging tame or driven grouse and pheasants. He was possessed, moreover, of sufficient brains to pass with credit an examination which gave him a post in the War Office, and had recently become, owing to the interposition of Providence and a restive mare, the eldest son.

In spite of all this, he was very much out of his depth as he sat there; for he was face to face with a crisis in his life, and that crisis was embodied in a woman. And such a woman! – quite unlike anything his conservative British brain had ever seen or imagined before the present London season: a mixture of Parisian daintiness and coquetry, nicely tempered by Anglo-Saxon breeding and common sense – in a word, an American.

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"But I don't wish – I mean, can't you give me something to go on – some assurance?"

She blushed and looked down, repeating the phrase, "I think you must speak to mamma."

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