Spindle and plough Author:Alice Dudeney 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: "Where have you been hiding?" she asked peevishly. "It was rude not to come down and speak to Mr. Poundsberry." "I've been in the morning-room, reading about ... more »a duke, a duchess, a wealthy commoner, whose extraordinary name escapes me, and a young woman called Lady " "Does he marry her?" interrupted Mrs. Pilgrim eagerly. "I was so afraid the companion—that creature with a pensive smile would " "Catch him. With a pensive smile they usually do; but— Why, mother, how flushed you are!" Mrs. Pilgrim patted her pretty cheeks with her pretty hands. "It is nothing—nothing whatever," she said, with a youthful bridle. If Shalisha had ever known the experience of a flirtation she might have rightly interpreted the curious clear fire in her mother's face. But she had taken rigid celibacy as a religion when she was eighteen, and had been a devotee ever since. At eighteen her father had died. For nearly five years she had earnestly constituted herself her mother's keeper. "Why does Mr. Poundsberry always come?" she asked abruptly. "He can't help coming," said Mrs. Pilgrim, with a little well-bred snigger. "And you really must be civil to him—in common decency. Remember what a true friend he has been—so practical, while your poor father " "Never mind." That unctuous, fretful expression, so often repeated, "your poor father," was unbearable. But Shalisha took a forward step and lightly kissed her mother's hot cheek, reverencing her, as she always did, because she had known the honour of being his wife and the tragedy of becoming his widow. chapter{Section 4"I'd like some tea," she said, glancing at the table. "Why, you have had it, and I declare there is none left in the pot. I must have some more made." "You should have come down, dear. It is extravagance to hav...« less