Misunderstood. Florence Montgomery

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ coat, and goloshes, he may go and meet his father at the station; and Humphrey has consented to come to terms if Miles may go too.

      But here Virginie is firm. No amount of wrapping up would prevent Miles catching cold on so damp and rainy a day, as she knows well, by fatal experience; so the fiat has gone forth, either Humphrey will go alone, or both will stay at home.

      "Don't go," pleaded little Miles, as they pressed their faces against the window; "it will be so dull all alone with Virginie."

      "She's a cross old thing," muttered Humphrey; "but never mind, Miles, I won't go without you, and we'll count the raindrops on the window to make the time pass quick."

      This interesting employment had the desired effect, and the next half-hour soon slipped by. Indeed, it was so engrossing, that the dog-cart came up the avenue, and was nearly at the hall door, before the little boys perceived it.

      "Qu'est-ce que c'est donc!" exclaimed Virginie, startled by Humphrey's jump from the window-sill to the floor.

      "C'est mon père," was all the information he vouchsafed her, as he rushed out of the room.

      "M. votre père! Attendez done que je vous arrange un peu les cheveux."

      She spoke to the winds: nothing was heard of Humphrey but sundry bumps and jumps in the distance, which told of his rapid descent down the stairs.

      The more tardy Miles was caught and brushed, in spite of his struggles, and then he was off to join his brother.

      He reached the hall door just as the carriage drove up, and the two little figures jumped and capered about, while a tall, dark gentleman divested himself of his mackintosh and umbrella, and then came up the steps into the house.

      He stooped down to kiss the eager faces. "Well, my little fellows, and how are you both? No bones broken since last week? No new bruises and bumps, eh?"

      They were so taken up with their father, that they did not perceive that he was not alone, but that another gentleman had got out of the dog-cart, till Sir Everard said—

      "Now go and shake hands with that gentleman. I wonder if you know who he is?"

      Humphrey looked up into the young man's face, and said, while his color deepened—

      "I think you are my Uncle Charlie, who came to see us once a long time ago before you went to sea, and before——"

      "Quite right," said Sir Everard, shortly; "I did not think you would have remembered him. I daresay, Charlie, Humphrey has not altered very much; but this little fellow was quite a baby when you went away," he added, taking Miles up in his arms, and looking at his brother-in-law for admiration.

      "What a likeness!" exclaimed Uncle Charlie.

      Sir Everard put the child down with a sigh.

      "Like in more ways than one, I am afraid. Look here," pointing to the delicate tracery of the blue veins on the forehead, and the flush on the fair cheek.

      Humphrey had been listening intently to this conversation, and his father being once more occupied with kissing Miles, he advanced to his uncle, and put his hand confidingly in his.

      "You are a nice little man," said Uncle Charlie, laying his other hand on the curly head; "we were always good friends, Humphrey. But," he added, half to himself, as he turned up the bright face to his, and gazed at it intently for a moment, "you are not a bit like your mother."

      The dressing-gong now sounded, and the little boys proceeded to their father's room, to help or hinder him with his toilette.

      Miles devoted himself to the carpet-bag, in expectation of some tempting paper parcel; while Humphrey's attentions were given to first one and then the other of the articles he was extracting from the pocket of the coat Sir Everard had just thrown off.

      A suspicious click made the baronet turn round.

      "What have you got hold of, Humphrey?"

      An open pocket-knife dropped from the boy's hand he had just succeeded in opening the two blades, and was in the act of trying the edges on his thumb nail.

      Failing in that experiment, his restless fingers strayed to the dressing-table, and an ominous silence ensued.

      "Humphrey," shouted his father, "put my razor down."

      In the glass he had caught sight of a well-soaped face, and spoke just in time to stop the operation.

      Punishment always follows sin, and Humphrey was dispatched to the nursery to have his face sponged and dried.

      By taking a slide down the banisters, however, he made up for lost time, and arrived at the library-door at the same time as his father and brother.

      Uncle Charlie was standing by the window, ready dressed; and the gong sounding at that moment, they all went in to dinner.

      The two little brothers had a chair on each side of their father, and an occasional share in his food.

      Dinner proceeded in silence. Uncle Charlie was enjoying his soup, and Sir Everard, dividing himself between his little boys and his meal.

      "It's William's birthday to-day," said Humphrey, breaking silence.

      The unfortunate individual in white silk stockings, thus suddenly brought into public notice, reddened to the roots of his hair; and in his confusion nearly dropped the dish he was in the act of putting down before his master.

      "He's twenty-two years old to-day," continued Humphrey; "he told me so this morning."

      Sir Everard tried to evince a proper amount of interest in so important an announcement.

      "What o'clock were you born, William?" pursued Humphrey, addressing the shy young footman at the side-board, where he had retreated with the dish-cover, and from whence he was making all sorts of signs to his tormentor, in the vain hope of putting an end to the conversation.

      Sir Everard hastily held out a bit of turbot on the end of his fork, and effectually stopped the boy's mouth for a few minutes; but no sooner had he swallowed it, than he broke out again.

      "What are you going to give William for his birthday present, father?" he said, putting his arms on the table, and resting his chin upon them, that he might the more conveniently look up into his father's face, and await his answer.

      Lower and lower bent Uncle Charlie's head over his plate, and his face became alarmingly suffused with color.

      "I know what he'd like," finished Humphrey, "for he's told me!"

      The unhappy footman snatched up a dish-cover, and began a retreat to the door; but the inexorable butler handed him the lobster sauce, and he was obliged to advance with it to his master's side.

      "I said to him to-day," proceeded Humphrey, in all the conscious glory of being in William's confidence, "If father were to give you a birthday present, what would you like? You remember, don't you, William? And then he told me, didn't you, William?"

      The direct СКАЧАТЬ