The Emperor Read Online Free PDF

consented to follow old Badger through the gap.
    ‘ He's very good, isn't he?' Mary remarked when they were side by side again. 'Your dear old Poppy would have stood up at half the provocation, and you'd have been two counties away by now.'
    ‘ Yes, he's very sensible for a youngster,' Jemima said. 'I think he'll be just right for Louisa Anstey by the time she's out of childbed. But then, you know, I've often thought that geldings are more suitable for ladies than mares. They're usually better-tempered and more reliable, in my experience.'
    ‘You've always ridden mares yourself,' Mary pointed out.
    ‘ But then I like the challenge,' Jemima smiled. 'Louisa has never been adventurous, but she likes to go out on horseback, so this fellow will be just right for her in another month. It was well thought of by John Anstey. He is a most attentive husband.'
    ‘ And you benefit by the commission. Clever John! And clever Louisa, to get a boy first time. What are they going to call him?'
    ‘John, of course.'
    ‘ Yes, of course. I imagine Lucy must he hoping very hard for a boy next March, so that she won't have it to do again.'
    ‘ Why should you think she is not pleased to be pregnant?' Jemima asked in surprise.
    ‘ Oh, perhaps she may be,' Mary said, 'but it will restrict her other activities so much I dare say she will not wish to be often increasing. No curricle racing for her – no hunting this winter, nor skating on the great lake at Wolvercote – no travelling at all, if Chetwyn has any sense. Poor thing, she will be so bored.'
    ‘ Do you think it is boredom, then, that makes her do such – unexpected things?'
    ‘ Oh yes,' Mary said simply. 'You gave us both too much education to fit us for the usual female life of sewing and sitting and smiling. Lucy was more restless than me, because she was cleverer, but she was better off really, because my interests were never fixed on horses. I didn't know what I wanted, until Flora and Charles took me to Italy and then set me up in London.'
    ‘ Is that what you wanted,' Jemima smiled, ‘to be a leader . of the ton? Yes, I remember, you always said you intended to marry an earl. Poor Captain Haworth!' Mary laughed in acknowledgement of the jibe, and they rode on in silence for a while, each occupied with her thoughts.
    Jemima said eventually, 'It's strange how one's children turn out so differently from the way one imagines them. William, for example: he was so small and frail as a child – do you remember, Mary? – and we often thought we should never rear him at all. And now he's the captain of a seventy- four, a tall, strong man, and a great martinet! You remem ber that last letter from Harry, where he said that William is such a strict disciplinarian that the men call him "Bloody Bill"? And then there's James.'
    ‘Ah yes, James,' Mary said thoughtfully.
    ‘ I often wonder why James has turned out the way he has. He was such a quiet, good child. Perhaps he was too much alone. You and Edward and the twins had each other to play with, but Jamie was too young to join in, and by the time Harry and Lucy came along, he was too old for them.
    And your Papa was abroad a good deal while he was growing up, and I was always busy. Yet he was very fond of Father Ramsay. I can never understand what made him do that dreadful thing with Mary Skelwith. That's when he began to go wrong.'
    ‘ I think he was in love with her before she married, when she was still Mary Loveday.'
    ‘ Do you? But she married Skelwith of her own free will. Why would she have done that if she meant to –' She frowned. 'All that apart, when the scandal broke, what could we do?'
    ‘Only what you had to.'
    ‘ But from that moment, he has seemed so lost. If only he could have married Héloïse.'
    ‘ Do you really think that would have made any differ ence? In a few months he would have grown tired of her, and been just the same. He is discontented by nature. I think he has loved her far more since he lost