The Determined Bachelor Read Online Free PDF Page A

himself.”
    â€œNonsense,” responded his lady with some feeling. “I have never observed anything like! And I am sure I know a great deal more about my own children than you can, my dear. Nurse is very good to all of them, and, in my opinion, spoils Alex far more than she ought. Why, they are altogether much too spoilt. I cannot conceive of having another child, even if I could.”
    â€œOh, to be sure, my love,” interposed her husband hurriedly, “no one is saying that you should. Louisa,” he addedto his brother with a little cough, “has a most delicate constitution. She nearly died when little Alex was born.”
    Lady Hargate was very fond of a sympathetic ear. She had tortured her husband for some time with tales of her misery during the bearing of her children and now turned to her brother-in-law with a pathetic look.
    â€œIt is very true, Basil. I nearly died. Lord, what a heavy burden we women are forced to bear! It is beyond everything.”
    Sir Basil was not anxious to see this line of conversation progress. Such talk offended his sensibilities and defied everything he had ever been taught to believe about the gentile courage of motherhood.
    â€œAnd yet you must love to see the dear little things playing,” he said. “You must often long for another.”
    â€œLong for another!”
    â€œI mean,” he added hurriedly, “if another would appear, as it were by magic! I am sure you are a wonderful mother, Louisa. Anyone can see that in your nature shines that gentleness of spirit, that constancy of good humour, which is the very essence of motherhood. How they must dote upon you!”
    Lady Hargate was torn. How could she deny these compliments and yet speak the truth? For the truth was that she abhorred children in general, and though she could not help but love her own, she dearly wished sometimes that they had never been born. In principle, they were delightful, but in the actual and persistent reality, they left much to be desired. They were boisterous and noisy, and never seemed to possess the charm she would have liked to see in them. It seemed to her that whenever they appeared they disappointed her by some rudeness or other, and yet she had not the heart to scold them. Lord Hargate, whose office it should have been to censor their behaviour, would not dream of it. He let the little scoundrels do exactly as they pleased, until sometimes she was sure their noisy playing and endless tears would kill her. And yet she fancied herself as a loving and graceful mother, and was convinced that if only the baby would give up howling and the elder children were quieter, she should find them delightful.
    â€œDear little things,” she murmured, imagining them for the moment clean and pretty and tucked into their beds. “Yes, yes, how they do dote upon me! Do they not, my love? Why, I have the greatest desire to see them this very moment! Doyou, my dear, please pull the bell, and I shall send for Nurse.”
    Lord Hargate obeyed, and Sir Basil expressed his delight at the idea of seeing his young nephews and niece after so many years. Indeed, there had only been two when he had left for France, and he was very eager to acquaint himself with the youngest member of the family.
    In due course the nurse appeared and, looking a little surprised, went off to fetch her charges. His lordship, meanwhile, could not resist the temptation to boast about them and to demand that his brother look out for the strong resemblance which existed between himself and the two boys.
    â€œWhy, it is nothing of the kind, my dear,” responded his wife, smiling at Sir Basil. “You must tell me yourself, my dear brother, if you do not think little Harry is the very image of me! And as to Alex, he is too young yet to be absolutely sure, but I think he has got my eyes and nose, and certainly his figure is nothing like his father’s!”
    Sir Basil smiled