The Evil Genius: A Domestic Story — page 152: what you’re looking at

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

THE EVIL GENIUS. 141 here directly to dine with me. You will stay and have dinner too, won’t you?” Randal promised to dine with Kitty when they met in Lon- don. Before he left the room, he pointed to his card on the table. ‘‘ Let the captain see my message,” he said, as he went out. The moment the door had closed on him, Mrs. Presty startled her daughter by taking up the card and looking at what Randal had written on it. ‘‘It isn’t a letter, Catherine; and you know how superior [am to common prejudices.” With that defense of her proceeding, she coolly read the message. ‘‘ [am sorry to say that I can tell you nothing more of your old friend’s daugh- ter as yet. Icanonlyrepeat that she neither needs nor deserves the help that you kindly offer to her.” Mrs. Presty laid the card down again, and owned that she wished Randal had been a little more explicit. ‘‘ Who can it be?’ she wondered. ‘* An- other young hussy gone wrong ?” Kitty turned to her mother with a look of alarm. ‘‘ What’sa hussy ?” she asked. ‘‘ Does grandmamma mean me?” The great hotel clock in the hall struck two, and the child’s anxieties took a new direction. ‘‘Isn’t it time my little friends came to see me ?” she said. It was half an hour past the time. Catherine proposed to send to Lady Myrie and Mrs. Romsey, and inquire if anything had happened to cause the delay. As she told Kitty to ring the bell, the waiter came in with two letters addressed to Mrs. Ormond. Mrs. Presty had her own ideas, and drew her own conclusions. She watched Catherine attentively. Even Kitty observed that her mother’s face grew paler and paler as she read the letters. ‘** You look as if you were frightened, mamma.” There was no reply. Kitty began to feel so uneasy on the subject of her din- ner and her guests that she actually ventured on putting a ques- tion to her grandmother. Shae they be long, do you think, before they come?’ she asked. The old lady’s worldly wisdom had passed by this time from a state of suspicion to a state of certainty. ‘*‘ My child,” she an- swered, ‘‘ they won’t come at all.” Kitty ran to her mother, eager to inquire if what Mrs. Presty had told her could possibly be true. Before a word had passed her lips she shrunk back too frightened to speak. Never, in her little experience, had she been startled by such a look in her mother’s face as the look that confronted her now. For the first time Catherine saw her child trembling at the sight of her. Before that discovery the emotions that shook her un- der the insult which she had received lost their hold. She caught Kitty up in herarms. ‘‘ My darling, my angel, it isn’t you lam thinking of. love you! I love you! In the whole world there isn’t such a good child, such a sweet, lovable, pretty child as ou are. Oh, how disappointed she looks—she’s crying. Don’t reak my heart! don’t cry.” Kitty held up her head, and cleared her eyes with a dash of her hand. ‘1 won't cry. COMMICLO® CS (E() im