Читать книгу The Last Chance: A Tale of the Golden West онлайн

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When, therefore, as the clock struck nine, Mr.and Mrs.Banneret rattled out of the front gate, at the rate of twelve miles an hour, old Hector holding up his head, and sending out his forelegs, as if he wanted to do the two hundred miles to the metropolis in forty-eight hours—the spirits of the ‘leading lady’ and the hero, in what might be a successful melodrama or a tragedy, as the Fates should decree, visibly rose.

‘Feels like old times, doesn’t it? This turnout was new when we were married. How we used to rattle about! Now we’re a dozen years older, and still “going strong,” thank God! Steady, Hector! what an old Turk you are to pull!’

‘Yes, my dear,’ said the lady, looking softly in ssss1 his face, with an added lustre in her dark eyes—‘we have not done so badly, considering we lost every penny in the world not long after that interesting event. We have known hard times, but as long as you and the children are well, and we can give them a decent education, I care for nothing. But we are going to risk nearly everything again, it seems to me—poor Hector and Paris too! It’s a plunge, isn’t it?’