Sword to the Heart (Bantam Series No. 13) Read Online Free PDF

thinks you are perfect, Mama,” she said fondly, “and I hope that His Lordship will find me as agreeable.”
    Lady Margaret gave a little sigh.
    “I am sure he will, darling,” she said, but she sounded almost as if she convinced herself rather than her daughter.
    Because she was so anxious to shine in Lord Colwall’s eyes Natalia persuaded her father to take not only the Morning Post but also The Times .
    “I shall never have time to read two newspapers, Natalia,” the Reverend Adolphus protested.
    “But I have!” Natalia answered. “I must be up to date, Papa, with what is happening in the world outside.”
    She gave a little sigh.
    “Pooley Bridge is so isolated that we might be living on an island in the Atlantic.”
    “Now, Natalia, that is not fair,” her father protested. “You and your mother visit Penrith at least once a month and there are some very agreeable people in the neighbourhood, including my own family.”
    “Yes, I know, Papa, and I am not complaining,” Natalia answered, “but I wish that Lord Colwall had thought it part of my education that I should go to London or perhaps even to Europe!”
    She paused and said:
    “Can you imagine, Papa, what it would be like to see Rome, or Athens?”
    “I am sure your husband will take you to both these places when you are married,” the Vicar answered. “It would be disappointing for him if you had seen them already with someone else.”
    A little shadow cleared from Natalia’s face.
    “Yes, of course, that is what His Lordship intends,” she said. “How clever of you, Papa, to realise it. And naturally I would much rather go with him than with anyone else in the world.
    “But you must tell me the whole history of the Colosseum, the Forum, and Acropolis and the Parthenon, in case however clever His Lordship may be, he does not know as much as you.”
    “I am sure he will know a great deal more,” the Reverend Adolphus declared modestly.
    At the same time he dropped a light kiss on his daughter’s hair. “But however interesting the Ancient World may be,” Natalia went on, “and you know how much their histories delight you and me, Papa, I must also be knowledgeable on current affairs.”
    There was a little frown between her eyes as she said:
    “There are more letters in The Times today about the cruelty of very young children being employed in the mines. I think you should read them, Papa.”
    “I will, indeed,” the Reverend Adolphus replied. “I suppose they have not published my letter about the iniquity of ‘Strappers’ being used to whip into wakefulness the children who labour on the looms.”
    “It has not appeared yet,” Natalia answered, “but there is a letter from Lord Lauderdale insisting that climbing boys are essential if chimneys are to be cleaned, and that people who say it is cruel to use children of five or six years old are talking rubbish!”
    The Reverend Adolphus gave a snort of sheer fury.
    ‘Lord Lauderdale should be thrust up a chimney himself!” he declared. “I only wish I could meet His Lordship and tell him what I think of him.”
    He spoke so violently that Natalia gave a little laugh.
    “Oh, Papa, I love you in your militant mood,” she exclaimed. ‘If you only could be in the House of Lords I really believe that you would rout Lord Lauderdale!”
    As she spoke she remembered that Lord Colwall was a member of the Upper House.
    She wondered why she had never seen his name amongst those who spoke on the subjects which interested her and her father, and on which they both felt so intensely.
    Journeying now in the Dritchka chariot on the last day of their journey as they passed through the fruitful vale of Evesham, Natalia said almost triumphantly:
    “There has been no talk in the newspapers of agricultural trouble in Herefordshire.”
    “No, I have noticed that,” her father replied. “It started early last month in Kent and then spread into Sussex and Hampshire.”
    “There has been a