The Handsome Humes Author:William Black Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III A CHANCE ENCOUNTER Clad in abundant furs, the Lady Helen Yorke was standing on the steps of Monks-Hatton Hall, leisurely buttoning her driving-... more »gloves; and in front of her and awaiting her was a mail- phaeton, with a pair of handsome grays more or less submitting to the pacific ministrations of the groom at their head. Her companion was of maturer age than herself—a lady of quiet and serious aspect, who rarely spoke unless when she was spoken to. On the other hand, when these two had at length got into their places, when the younger of them had taken possession of reins and whip, and when a touch of the silk 'had sent the horses forward, it speedily appeared that Lady Helen was in a particularly gay and talkative mood, though, as usual, her eyes maintained a certain mysterious reticence in their expression of humor or sarcasm, as the case might be. " You are so dark and secret, Mrs. Spink," she was saying, as the carriage rolled along the Fair Mile. " Spink by name, but Sphinx by nature. One can never tell what you are brooding over. I can only guess now, for example, what you are thinking of my having dragged you away at this unearthly hour, when I might have taken Willis with me. But then, you see, Mrs. Spinkie, it's a long drive to Oxford, and the horses will want at least a couple of hours' rest in the middle 6f the day; and what could I do with Willis all that time ? What does she know about architecture—about colleges and quadrangles and chapels? Never mind. If this is another deadly injury, I dare say you have your revenge. I should not be in the least surprised to discover that you wrote articles for the Sunday Radical papers, denouncing the brutal selfishness and tyranny and hard-hearted ness of the British nobility. Oh yes, I dare say we catch it—" ...« less