The Pointing Finger Author:Rita 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 Not even the recent shadow that had rested on the old Abbey, not even the ever-brooding gloom that stamped its vast chambers and wide corridors, a... more »nd closed and silent rooms, could subdue the spirits of Lady Sue. At dinner she was the life and soul of the small family party. Her acquaintance with her uncle had been one of constant interruptions, and though she had stayed at his London mansion and occasionally at his hunting box in Leicestershire, she had rarely visited the old family seat in Wales. She evinced some curiosity as to her cousin's intentions. Would he reside chiefly in London ? Was he as fond of hunting as ever, or had that pastime faded into insignificance beside the engrossing sport of " potting" big game, and the interests of savage races ? He talked of such sport and such savages with a familiarity and ease that he never displayed about home concerns. He told of wild tribes and their ways ; of hairbreadth escapes ; of dangers and perils and hardships that would have shamed the voluble Moor of Venice. And like a second Desdemona his lovely cousin listened, all absorbed and breathless. " Why, Ronnie, you are splendid ! " she said, as they all sat by the library fire after dinner. " I always knew you were a sportsman by instinct, but you never used to describe your adventures so brilliantly. You ought to write a book. There has never been a literary Earl of Edensore, has there, mother ? You might start the family on new lines. Travels in—where is the place, by the way ? Matabeleland—oh ! yes. You could write it in the Rider Haggard style. It would be sure to be a success. Only, I suppose, you never came across an ' Ayesha' ? Did you ? If so, you'll be wanting to go back. Oh! you needn't confess. I shall know you by your actions, like the fig-tr...« less