Honest Davie Author:Frank Barrett 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. or Falkland's Inconsistent Behaviour, AND HOW HE CAME TO MAKE LOVE TO DELIA. was my aunt's story. I have written it, not as she told it,... more » but with such modifications as circumstances made necessary. The course of the narrative was broken by frequent interruptions—I left her side for a few minutes while Dr. Blandly, with Mr. Adams and his daughter, passed through the room—by digressions that led nowhere, except to show that in all her wrong-doing LadyKestral was more to be pitied than blamed— by arguments in justification or extenuation of her conduct, and above all by several contradictions which provoked question, and had to be set right and explained. It struck me, as I listened to that part of the story relating to the events that immediately followed her first marriage, that my aunt was not telling me the whole truth. 'Twas here that contradictions occurred, though in this very part she was most careful in choosing her words. She had an explanation at the tip of her tongue for everything ; but these explanations did not dispel my doubts—nay, rather, they engendered a suspicion that she was conceding a fact which materially affected the power that Lord Kestral might possibly have over Mr. Adams. ' Why did Mr. Bond refuse to see his child ?' I asked. ' Because of his violent antipathy to me.' ' Do you know why he did not make more vigorous efforts to find you and your son when you left him ?' ' For the same reason, I should say. I conceive he was heartily glad to be rid of us both.' ' Antipathy does not justify a man in neglecting his duty. You may have lost your claim to his protection, but he was bound to care for the welfare of his son ; and I cannot understand how Mr. Bond, if he really possessed the principles you ascribe to him, co...« less