'Some
have not who do their duty conscientiously--another word which I
hate, by the bye.'
'They have love in a rough coat, perhaps,' said Alethea, 'and I
should expect it soon to put on a smoother one.'
CHAPTER VII--SIR MAURICE
'Shall thought was his, in after time,
Thus to be hitched into a rhyme;
The simple sire could only boast
That he was loyal to his cost,
The banished race of kings revered,
And lost his land.'
The holidays arrived, and with them the three brothers, for during
the first few weeks of the Oxford vacation Claude accompanied Lord
Rotherwood on visits to some college friends, and only came home the
same day as the younger ones.
Maurice did not long leave his sisters in doubt as to what was to be
his reigning taste, for as soon as dinner was over, he made Jane find
the volume of the Encyclopaedia containing Entomology, and with his
elbows on the table, proceeded to study it so intently, that the
young ladies gave up all hopes of rousing him from it. Claude threw
himself down on the sofa to enjoy the luxury of a desultory talk with
his sisters; and Reginald, his head on the floor, and his heels on a
chair, talked loud and fast enough for all three, with very little
regard to what the damsels might be saying.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87