Roxy Hastings — page 129: what you’re looking at

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

120 ROXY HASTINGS. “Yes; magnificently. I have been in it.” “T buy the whole. He is going to Europe with his fam- ily. And then—J—I—I’m going to housekeeping.” “Without a wife ?” “That’ll depend on circumstances. What would Lucy say to it?” A slight blush colored the old bachelor’s face as he asked this question, despite his affected coolness. “My Loo?” asked Mark, who was not altogether unpre- pared for the question. ‘ Well, I know what she ought to say, Mr. Burr. to a gentleman of your standing and repu- tation; and as Lucy is a good, sensible girl, with an ap- preciation of—of—merit—” “Thank you—thank you. I may ask her, then?” ‘Most undoubtedly, sir. But do not be hasty.” “Hasty, man! Why, I’m almost forty-five years old.” “T know. But do not be too abrupt, | mean, in your proposals. You had better prepare the way a little by some delicate attentions.” “All right.” BES This conversation had taken place nearly a year after Alfred had joined the army, but while, as was well known, Lucy still grieved for her young lover. Mrs. Holden, who was a woman of the world, by educa- tion, and who had four other daughters to provide for, was easily induced to see the advantage of starting her oldest child so well in life, especially as Lucy was almost twenty- two; and she had already one marriageable sister, and another provokingly tall at fifteen, who was fast crowding on, and murmuring that those two “old maids” were not out of the way. “It would be such a help, too, to Fanny and Grace,” the mother said, “to have such a stylish married sister. Lucy could give such brillaint parties !” . Oh, yes! Mrs. Holden approved it. But we have said. that she was a woman of the world, by education. She had a) heart which was sometimes troublesome to her in her posi | tion, and she could not help pitying her daughter, who had been encouraged to love Alfred Lee, and who, she knew, did still love him with her whole soul. So she had been very gentle with Lucy, though very firm, when the frightened girl appealed to her, nearly a year before, from her father’s harsh decree in regard to Alfred. Of the honor in reserve for her in the addresses of Mr. Burr, of course she knew nothing, as his claims were not comicbooks.co