Read Online A School for Brides by Patrice Kindl - Free Book Online

world. He owns a telescope, I believe, and collects rocks and observes birds and comets and so on. I feel certain you will have much to discuss.”
    â€œA telescope! Is it a reflector or a refractor? And what are its dimensions, do you know?” Miss Franklin asked. Mr. Crabbe, however, disclaimed any knowledge about the sort of lens owned by his brother. “Oh, in any case, I do not suppose he will bring it with him,” she said wistfully. “One could not wish it to be damaged, but how I should love to see and use it!”
    â€œI shall make a point of telling him that he must on no account show his face without it,” said Mr. Crabbe.
    Miss Franklin blushed, her breath caught with emotion, and her speech became most charmingly confused. “Oh, you mustn’t—I pray you, Mr. Crabbe—But perhaps he would allow me to examine—Oh, it is good of you!”
    Mr. Crabbe smiled benevolently upon her and then cast a triumphant glance in Miss Asquith’s direction.
    â€œI believe I win this round?” he murmured.
    â€œYou do, sir,” Miss Asquith admitted. Then, in a louder voice, she continued, “It
is
very good of you, Mr. Crabbe—poor Miss Franklin is quite thrown away on us. Bringing your brother into our circle will give her someone to talk to. I am astonished at how much that circle has enlarged since poor Mr. Arbuthnot had his accident, and now you propose to enlarge it yet again!”
    â€œYes, and I believe there is a stranger at the inn in Lesser Hoo, as well,” Mr. Crabbe replied. “Of quality, my valet tells me, so perhaps that circle may expand even more.”
    Half the room away, two pairs of eyes were raised at this remark, and two pairs of ears tuned to his words. Miss Pffolliott pressed the back of her hand to her mouth, blotting out the words that trembled on her lips:
A stranger at the inn!
Miss Crump said nothing, but melted back still farther into the protective environs of her wing chair.
    However, there was no further discussion about the stranger, and the two ladies were left to their hopes and fears.

7

    MR. GODALMING, WHO farmed some three thousand acres outside of Lesser Hoo and was magistrate for the district, regarded the arrival of these alien gentlemen with disapproval. He was a rather ugly man of few social attainments, but yet was inclined to feel that his three thousand acres and healthy income entitled him to a handsome and accomplished wife. He had looked upon the Winthrop Hopkins Academy as his own private hunting preserve, so to speak, and resented the intrusion of others who might be more accomplished sportsmen, and so carry off all the game.
    For a time he stayed away, hoping they would soon leave. When, after nearly a month they had not, he called at the school at a moment he thought it likely he would find them there as well. Once introduced, he made a number of disparaging remarks about the counties of their births, and the inferiority of southerners in general and Oxford men in particular, and was ignored for his pains. Attempts to turn the subject of the conversation toward his one area of real expertise were in vain; no one seemed to care twopence for sheep and their care.
    At length he went away, feeling abused. He had not the same leisure as the newcomers; it was mid-September and the grain fields were being harvested. Being a gentleman, he did not wield a sickle or handle the grain himself, but he was a concerned and knowledgeable landowner. He had strong opinions about the proper ways to bring in the crops, and could not be spared during this most critical period in the agricultural year. His wheat, oats, and barley stood second to his wool, mutton, and fleeces in the profits produced by his estate, and he was too good a farmer to allow social affairs to distract him when his attention was required in the fields.

    The stranger at the inn was soon discovered to be a man of middle age, though giving the impression