Cousin Kate Read Online Free PDF Page A

murmured excuse. Kate said: 'You are very good, ma'am - Aunt! I am excessively grateful, but I couldn't - no, I couldn't subsist on your generosity! Why, you know nothing about me - you might even take me in dislike!'
    'So I might, agreed Lady Broome, looking amused. 'So might you take me in dislike! If that were to happen there would be nothing for it but to part. You wouldn't be my prisoner, you know! Come! Let us sit down, and talk the matter over! You must tell me, if you please, how in the world you come to be unmarried, for it seems to me to be quite extraordinary. Your mama must have been very beautiful: I don't remember my brother very clearly, but I don't think you resemble him much, do you?'
    'No, admitted Kate, blushing faintly. 'That is, I was thought to favour my mother, but she was much more beautiful than I am.'
    'And she died when you were twelve? Poor child! I wish I might have known, but I was still in the schoolroom when my brother married her, and only a child when he first joined, so that he was almost a stranger to me. Do you blame me for not having tried, in later years, to better my acquaintance with him? Pray do not!'
    'Oh, no!' Kate said. 'He did not, either.' She glanced up into that handsome countenance, a tiny crease between her brows, and in her eyes a doubtful question. ' Don't you remember him, ma'am? He remembered you!'
    'Very likely: he was six-and-twenty when I was sixteen. I only wish he may have remembered something to my credit, but when I look back upon myself I realize that at that age I must have been a detestable girl, with a very good conceit of myself, and my head stuffed with every sort of ambitious notion, from making a brilliant marriage to winning the admiration of all by some improbable deed of heroism! I fear my governess was to blame: she was much addicted to reading sentimental romances, and she permitted me to do so too.'
    Kate smiled, reassured. 'Papa did say that you were very ambitious, she admitted.
    'He might well! I hope he knew that I outgrew such nonsense, and instead of marrying a prince or a duke fell in love with my dear Sir Timothy. I must tell you, my dear, that he was almost as pleased as I was when he learned of your existence. He would have accompanied me to London if I had allowed him to do so, but I was obliged to forbid it. You see, I have to take great care of him: he doesn't enjoy good health, and the journey would have quite knocked him up. So he charged me with a message, that a warm welcome awaits you at Staplewood.'
    'How kind - how very kind he must be!' Kate exclaimed, much moved. 'Pray tell him how grateful I am, ma'am! But-'
    'No, no, let us have no buts!' interrupted Lady Broome. 'You shall come to Staplewood on a visit merely. You can have no objection to spending a month or two in the country. Then, if you are still determined to seek another situation, I must try if I can find one for you.' She smiled at Kate's quick look of inquiry. 'Yes, I can, you know - and a better one than you could discover for yourself. However, we shan't think of that yet. In another fortnight we shall be in May, and must hope that this odiously sharp wind will have blown itself out. Ah, you can't conceive of any place more beautiful than Staplewood in summer!'
    It was too tempting; it would be too churlish to refuse. Kate stammered her thanks, was silenced, and found herself listening to a description of the household.
    'Sir Timothy,' said Lady Broome, 'is many years older than I am, and has become very frail. I am his second wife, you must know, and my son, Torquil, is his only surviving child. He is some years younger than you.' She hesitated, looking all at once a little stern; then she sighed, and continued quietly: 'I am sorry to say that his constitution is sickly. It has never been possible to send him to school. He is under the care of Dr Delabole, who also attends Sir Timothy, and lives with us. So you see, my dear, why I have so much wished for a daughter!