Читать книгу The Passionate Quest онлайн

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"We could learn," he suggested humbly.

Rosina laughed at him pleasantly.

"I only mentioned the tennis club allegorically, Mr. Stuart," she said. "You wouldn't understand my reasons, for wishing to go to London, and if you did, you wouldn't approve of them. Besides, everything now is definitely arranged."

She moved forward but he still blocked the way. He was a short man, with curly flaxen hair, and even now, in his youthful days, inclined to corpulence. From his point of view, Rosina was a sister in grievous danger. She also appealed to him in another, and altogether unsisterly fashion.

"There is something I had made up my mind to say to you, Miss Vonet," he announced, "which might possibly have weight with you in considering this matter."

"Mr. Stuart," she replied, looking into his narrow but very earnest blue eyes, "nothing that you could possibly say would make the slightest difference."

"Your uncle," he began—

She shook her head.

"My uncle," she interrupted, "belongs to the world I am leaving. We have bidden one another farewell. He is a good and just man, I have no doubt, but to me he is simply a granite image. Please do not quote my uncle."