Читать книгу Sydney Lisle, the Heiress of St. Quentin онлайн

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“You might come to me in the library for five minutes after dinner, if you will, Aunt Rica,” he answered rather moodily. “I won’t keep you. Good-night, Sydney.”

“Good-night, Cousin St. Quentin,” the girl said. Her cousin’s thin hand took hers for a minute, and she followed Lady Frederica in to dinner.

Sydney thought the meal unending. The long table, the enormous room, the powdered footmen all combined to make her feel strange and very, very homesick. But the dessert had been partaken of at last, and Lady Frederica looked at the girl. “Shall we come, my dear? You’ll join us presently in the gold drawing-room, Mr. Fenton?”

The old lawyer held the door open, and the two passed out to the drawing-room.

“Pull a chair up to the fire, child,” said Lady Frederica with a shiver. “I suppose I must go to St. Quentin: he probably wants to give me some further directions about you. I shan’t be long: my dear nephew is not by any means good company, I can assure you!”

And her grey and silver draperies swept out of the gold drawing-room.