Читать книгу Within the Precincts онлайн

66 страница из 90

“He wants to know,” said Emma, with a glance at the others as she pinned her work straight, “if the Captain has been here;” upon which there was a chorus of laughter, making Law red and angry. He turned upon them with a furious look.

“I should like to know how you would all like it,” said the boy, “if your governor were to come poking in the very same place where——”

“Oh, you may make yourself quite easy, Mr. Lawrence,” said Polly, with a toss of her elaborately dressed head. “He don’t meddle with you. The Captain is a man of taste, he ain’t a boy, like some folks. He knows what’s what, the Captain does. Other girls may have their fancies; I don’t say anything against that, but give me a man as knows the world, and knows what he wants. That’s the sort for me.”

“She gets more insufferable than ever. I wonder how you can put up with her,” said Law under his breath.

“Doesn’t she,” said Emma in a whisper. “I wish she had never come into our workroom; but she has taste, mother says, and we have to put up with it. Everything has to give way to the work,” the girl added, threading her needle; and as she made a knot upon the end of the new thread, she shook her head with a sigh.