A House to Let Read Online Free PDF

with
the very thing Alice had been longing for, but had not been able to
procure. One time it was a little chair for drawing the little sufferer
along the streets, and many an evening that ensuing summer Mr. Openshaw
drew her along himself, regardless of the remarks of his acquaintances.
One day in autumn he put down his newspaper, as Alice came in with the
breakfast, and said, in as indifferent a voice as he could assume:
    "Mrs. Frank, is there any reason why we two should not put up our horses
together?"
    Alice stood still in perplexed wonder. What did he mean? He had resumed
the reading of his newspaper, as if he did not expect any answer; so she
found silence her safest course, and went on quietly arranging his
breakfast without another word passing between them. Just as he was
leaving the house, to go to the warehouse as usual, he turned back and
put his head into the bright, neat, tidy kitchen, where all the women
breakfasted in the morning:
    "You'll think of what I said, Mrs. Frank" (this was her name with the
lodgers), "and let me have your opinion upon it to-night."
    Alice was thankful that her mother and Norah were too busy talking
together to attend much to this speech. She determined not to think
about it at all through the day; and, of course, the effort not to think
made her think all the more. At night she sent up Norah with his tea.
But Mr. Openshaw almost knocked Norah down as she was going out at the
door, by pushing past her and calling out "Mrs. Frank!" in an impatient
voice, at the top of the stairs.
    Alice went up, rather than seem to have affixed too much meaning to his
words.
    "Well, Mrs. Frank," he said, "what answer? Don't make it too long; for I
have lots of office-work to get through to-night."
    "I hardly know what you meant, sir," said truthful Alice.
    "Well! I should have thought you might have guessed. You're not new at
this sort of work, and I am. However, I'll make it plain this time. Will
you have me to be thy wedded husband, and serve me, and love me, and
honour me, and all that sort of thing? Because if you will, I will do as
much by you, and be a father to your child—and that's more than is put
in the prayer-book. Now, I'm a man of my word; and what I say, I feel;
and what I promise, I'll do. Now, for your answer!"
    Alice was silent. He began to make the tea, as if her reply was a matter
of perfect indifference to him; but, as soon as that was done, he became
impatient.
    "Well?" said he.
    "How long, sir, may I have to think over it?"
    "Three minutes!" (looking at his watch). "You've had two already—that
makes five. Be a sensible woman, say Yes, and sit down to tea with me,
and we'll talk it over together; for, after tea, I shall be busy; say No"
(he hesitated a moment to try and keep his voice in the same tone), "and
I shan't say another word about it, but pay up a year's rent for my rooms
to-morrow, and be off. Time's up! Yes or no?"
    "If you please, sir,—you have been so good to little Ailsie—"
    "There, sit down comfortably by me on the sofa, and let us have our tea
together. I am glad to find you are as good and sensible as I took for."
    And this was Alice Wilson's second wooing.
    Mr. Openshaw's will was too strong, and his circumstances too good, for
him not to carry all before him. He settled Mrs. Wilson in a comfortable
house of her own, and made her quite independent of lodgers. The little
that Alice said with regard to future plans was in Norah's behalf.
    "No," said Mr. Openshaw. "Norah shall take care of the old lady as long
as she lives; and, after that, she shall either come and live with us,
or, if she likes it better, she shall have a provision for life—for your
sake, missus. No one who has been good to you or the child shall go
unrewarded. But even the little one will be better for some fresh stuff
about her. Get her a bright, sensible girl as a nurse: one who won't go
rubbing her with calf's-foot jelly as Norah does; wasting good stuff
outside that ought to go in,