Читать книгу The Carcellini Emerald, With Other Tales онлайн

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Then it came out it was Eunice, not Charlotte, whom Farnsworth wanted for a wife—whom he had loved for a year past, and left because he feared she would laugh at the disparity between their ages—nineteen and thirty-five—whom he had now come back to America resolved to secure, if earnest pleading would avail.

But Eunice, urged to the front by her mother, who philosophically made up her mind that one, if not the one she had counted upon of her daughters, should recoup their lost fortune and position, disappointed all the family hopes. She told Arden Farnsworth that it was impossible for her to marry him, and sent him away pierced with sorrow at his failure. His generous nature longed for an opportunity to place the dainty little beauty back in the niche where she belonged. For her sake he was prepared to make any provision for Mrs. Oliver and Chatty, short of offering them the hospitality of his houses and yacht and other such covetable spots where the Farnsworth Penates were enshrined.

In the tempest that broke over Eunice after Farnsworth’s departure, Tom learned his sister’s secret. She came to him, trembling and tearful, nestled in his breast, and told him that for a year she had considered herself engaged to Ashton Carmichael.