Читать книгу Mrs. Gailey онлайн

45 страница из 78

"He'd much better have let Lesley have it. She's terribly muddleheaded and unpractical, poor darling, but at least she loves the place."

Again old Nicholas shook his head. His white hair looked fiery in the sun.

"If he hadn't been killed like that . . . if he'd lived to get over his disappointment about the girl . . . I think he'd have made another will and a very different one. After all, it's nonsense to talk about the Bullens being finished. Quite a number of families have carried on through the female line."

"I know. Even the name could have been kept. Most men would have been willing to tack it on to theirs, considering how old it is." Then she added in a different voice, "I wonder now if Lesley will ever marry."

Nicholas grunted. "Too many bees in her bonnet."

"I know, but she's really very sweet. It's such a pity she should live like this, and I can't help blaming Iris. She's handled her all wrong—tried to make a sow's ear out of a silk purse. . . . Yes, I mean it that way round."