The Evil Genius: A Domestic Story — page 120: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE EVIL GENIUS. 109 A dense white fog was closing round them. Its stealthy ad- vance over the water had already begun to hide the boathouse at the end of the pier from view. The raw cold of the atmos- here made the child shiver. As Mr. Sarrazin took her hand to ead her in-doors, he turned and looked back at the faint outline of the boathouse, disappearing in the fog. Kitty wondered. *< Do you see anything ?” she asked. He answered that there was nothing to see, in the absent tone of a man busy with his own thoughts. They took the garden path which led to the cottage. As they reached the door he roused himself, and looked round again in the direction of the invisible lake. ‘* Was the boathouse of any use now?” he inquired; ‘‘ was there a boat in it, for instance?” ‘‘ There was a capital boat, fit to go anywhere.” ‘*‘ Anda man to manage it?’ ‘‘To be sure! the gardener was the man; he had been a sailor once; and he knew the lake as well as ” Kitty stopped, at a loss for a com- parison. ‘‘ As well as you know your multiplication table ?”’ said Mr. Sarrazin, dropping his serious questions on a sudden. cipal shook her head. ‘*‘ Much better,” she honestly acknowl- edged. Opening the breakfast-room door they saw Mrs. Presty making coffee. Kitty at once retired. When she had been fishing, her grandmamma inculcated habits of order by directing her to fake the rods to pieces, and to put them away in their cases in the lumber-room. While she was absent, Mr. Sarrazin profited by the opportunity, and asked if Mrs. Linley had thought it over in the night, and had decided on applying for a divorce. ‘‘T know nothing about my daughter,” Mrs. Presty answered, ‘Sexcept that she had a bad night. Thinking, no doubt, over your advice,” the old lady added, with a mischievous smile. ‘Will you kindly inquire if Mrs. Linley has made up her mind yet?” the lawyer ventured to say. ‘‘TIsn’t that your business?” Mrs. Presty asked, slyly. ‘‘ Sup- pose you write a little note, and I will send it up to her room.” The worldly wisdom which prompted this suggestion contem- pat ae a possible necessity for calling a domestic council, assem- led to consider the course of action which Mrs. Linley would do well to adopt. If the influence of her mother was among the forms of persuasion which might be tried, that wary relative maneuvered to make the lawyer speak first, and so to reserve to herself the advantage of having the last word. Patient Mr. Sarrazin wrote the note. He modestly asked for instructions; and he was content to re- ceive them in one word—Yes or No. In the event of the answer being Yes, he would ask for a few minutes’ conversation with Mrs. Linley, at her earliest convenience. That was all. The reply was returned in a form which left Yes to be in- ferred: ‘‘ I will receive you as soon as you have finished your breakfast.” SSD ECOMMICLO® S (E) im