Read Online Henry Tilney's Diary (9781101559024) by Amanda Grange - Free Book Online

understand.’
    â€˜Yes. Papa wanted his particular friends to himself for a few days before the rest of the guests arrived, and their families of course came with them. I am hoping you will render me your assistance in my attempts to avoid them, for they have been following me everywhere I go. Only in the library am I safe if I remain indoors. They never so much as look at a book. But I believe we may be free of them here for awhile.’
    â€˜When I marry – if I marry – my wife must love to read. I shall make it the one condition. Her dowry is unimportant, her family is irrelevant, but she must be a lover of novels, or else no wedding will take place!’
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    Wednesday 31 October
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    It is as I suspected, the house party is dull and if not for Eleanor I should depart for Woodston, whatever my father might say. But I cannot abandon her to such poor company. Frederick speaks to no one except his own particular friends and it is a blessing they keep to the billiard room, for when the door opens, a cloud of smoke and brandy fumes escape, sent on their way by ribald stories and even more ribald laughter. Miss Barton, as I suspected, catches him whenever he is not in the billiard room and flatters him from breakfast to supper, though he treats her with contempt. My father is polite enough, but he promotes his friends’ relations at every opportunity, and poor Eleanor is hard put to keep away from them. The only interesting point is that one of Fredericks’ guests, Mr Morris, avoids the billiard room and indeed seems to avoid Frederick. He does not in the least look like one of Frederick’s friends, lacking a swagger, and having something of the look of a startled deer. Eleanor and I have spent much of our time speculating as to his identity. It is fortunate we have this mystery, for there is little else to entertain us here.

NOVEMBER

    Friday 9 November
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    A surprising day, or perhaps it is better to say a tedious day with a surprising evening. My father was holding forth in the drawing room after dinner and Frederick’s friends were in the billiard room, so Eleanor and I took refuge in the library. We had just begun to talk about the marquis’s son when there was an embarrassed cough and Mr Thomas Morris stepped out from behind one of the bookcases.
    It was an awkward moment. He had evidently been in the library when we arrived and he had unwittingly overheard our conversation. He did not laugh and make some dubious remark, as might be expected from one of Frederick’s friends. Instead, he blushed and fingered his collar and muttered his apologies, adding that he had not meant to overhear our conversation but that he had been searching for a book.
    This so astounded Eleanor and I that we looked at each other in amazement. Then we turned our eyes back towards him, to discover that he was indeed holding a book.
    â€˜The antics in the billiard-room are not to your taste?’ hazarded my sister.
    â€˜No, I am afraid not,’ he said apologetically.
    â€˜What book have you found?’ I asked.
    He looked embarrassed and muttered something under his breath.
    â€˜Oh, just something I was reading at home. I thought I had packed my copy but I do not seem to have it with me, and I wondered if I might find a copy here. Luckily I have done so – if you do not object to my borrowing it?’
    â€˜You are very welcome to it,’ said Eleanor. ‘What is it?’
    He tucked the book behind his back, but not before Eleanor had glimpsed its cover.
    â€˜ A Sicilian Romance !’ she exclaimed.
    â€˜I have a partiality for Gothic novels,’ he admitted shamefacedly.
    â€˜But this is capital,’ I said. ‘My sister and I like nothing better. Which ones have you read?’
    â€˜ Castle of Wolfenbach , Clermont , Mysterious Warnings , and Necromancer of the Black Forest ,’ he said, warming to his theme. ‘ Clermont was my favourite, but