Good-bye, Claude. Won't you
shake hands?" She laid her hand upon his shoulder,--just touched
it,--turned, and fled.
She had not far to go. The villa where she lived was within
five minutes' walk. She ran in, and found her mother alone in the
drawing-room.
"My dear," the mother said, irritably, "I wish to goodness you
wouldn't run out after dinner. Where have you been?"
"Only into the garden, and to look at the sea."
"There's Sir William in the dining-room still."
"Let him stay there, mother dear. He'll drink up all the wine and
go to sleep, perhaps, and then we shall be rid of him."
"Go in, Florence, and bring him out. It isn't good for him, at his
age, to drink so much."
"Let the servants go," the girl replied, rebellious.
"My dear, your own accepted lover! Have you no right feeling? O
Florence! and when I am so ill, and you know--I told you--"
"A woman should not marry her grandfather. I've had more than
enough of him to-day already. You made me promise to marry him.
Until I do marry he may amuse himself. As soon as we are married,
I shall fill up all the decanters, and keep them full, and encourage
him to drink as much as ever he possibly can.
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