Читать книгу On the Brink of a Chasm: A record of plot and passion онлайн

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“Don’t question me. I have an unreasonable—no, perhaps it is not unreasonable—but I have a very strong dislike to him.”

“Surely that is unkind. I own, until yesterday I quite shared your feeling, but how can I think it any longer? I almost believe that I could love him. At least I must tell him how very grateful I am for what he has done.”

Pelham looked stern.

“Dick, what is the matter?”

“Don’t say too much about him, Barbara. I must tell you plainly that I do not like this. It seems to me as if I owed you to Tarbot’s action. It all sounds very generous, but then you are not behind the scenes. I don’t want to be in debt to Tarbot for anything. Oh, there, there, dear,” for Barbara’s face had clouded and then became very white. “It is all right now, and it is a blessed relief, and we’ll be married as soon as we can, little woman. I was attending to my first brief when your fascinating little note arrived.

“I rushed off to you, of course, for what are briefs to me when you want me? But now I shall attend to business with a will. I have about three hundred a year of my own—a mere nothing, of course—but we might be married in the autumn. We could begin in a small way, and hope for the time when I shall earn enough to give you the comforts you ought to have, my darling.”