The Big Drum - BestLightNovel.com
You’re reading novel The Big Drum Part 25 online at BestLightNovel.com. Please use the follow button to get notification about the latest chapter next time when you visit BestLightNovel.com. Use F11 button to read novel in full-screen(PC only). Drop by anytime you want to read free – fast – latest novel. It’s great if you could leave a comment, share your opinion about the new chapters, new novel with others on the internet. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest, latest novel everyday. Enjoy
SIR TIMOTHY.
[_Emphatically, raising his head._] It is _not_. [_With a despairing gesture._] I'm broken-hearted, Sir Randle. That's what I am; I'm broken-hearted.
LADY FILSON.
[_Sitting in the low-backed arm-chair on the left._] Oh, dear!
SIR TIMOTHY.
[_Sighing._] If I'd had the pluck to declare myself sooner, it might have been different. [_Staring before him._] From the moment I first set eyes on her, at the dinner-party you gave to welcome her on her arrival in London--from that moment I was captured completely, body and soul. The sight of her as she stood in the drawing-room beside her mother, with her pretty, white face and her elegant figure, and a gown clinging to her that looked as though she'd been born in it--'twill never fade from me if I live to be as old as a dozen Methuselahs!
SIR RANDLE.
[_Pryingly._] Er--has Ottoline--I have no desire to probe an open wound--has she a.s.signed any--reason----?
SIR TIMOTHY.
[_Rousing himself._] For rejecting me?
SIR RANDLE.
[_With a wave of the hand._] For----
LADY FILSON.
For not seeing her way clear----
SIR RANDLE.
To--er--in short--accept you?
SIR TIMOTHY.
She _has_.
LADY FILSON.
_Has_ she!
SIR TIMOTHY.
The best--and, for me, the worst--of reasons. There's another man in the case.
SIR RANDLE.
Another----?
LADY FILSON.
Another----!
SIR RANDLE.
[_To_ LADY FILSON.] Extraordinary!
LADY FILSON.
Bewildering.
SIR RANDLE.
We have been blind, Winnie.
LADY FILSON.
Absolutely.
SIR TIMOTHY.
And, whoever he may be, I trust he'll wors.h.i.+p her as devoutly as I do, and treat her with half the gentleness _I'd_ have treated her with, had she selected _me_ for her Number Two.
SIR RANDLE.
[_Piously._] Amen! [_To_ LADY FILSON.] Winifred----?
LADY FILSON.
[_Rather fretfully._] Amen.
SIR TIMOTHY.
[_Rising._] And with that sentiment on my lips, and in every fibre of my body, I'll relieve you of my depressing company. [_Going to_ LADY FILSON, _who rises at his approach, and taking her hand._] My dear lady----
LADY FILSON.
[_Genuinely._] My dear Sir Timothy!
SIR RANDLE.
[_Moving to the glazed door._] Painful! Painful!
[_As_ SIR TIMOTHY _turns from_ LADY FILSON, BERTRAM _reappears, in morning-dress, entering from the hall._
BERTRAM.
[_Drawing back on seeing_ SIR TIMOTHY.] Oh! [_To_ SIR RANDLE.] Am I intruding?
SIR RANDLE.
