Those Endearing Young Charms Read Online Free PDF Page A

observation, I have decided that Mary and you are not in love with each other."
    "Mary has told you this?"
    "Oh, no. Mary would not dream ... Mary is so dutiful...."
    "Miss Emily," said the earl coldly, "I suggest you return home before I put you over my knee and smack you. Your sister is a woman of mature years and knows her mind. When a lady has waited faithfully for me for ten whole years, then it is my duty to marry her. Duty is a higher virtue than love. I suggest you keep you maudlin thoughts for those romances you read."
    Emily flushed. She felt very young and silly.
    "I am sorry," she whispered. "I love Mary and do not wish her to be unhappy." Emily hung her head.
    He put out a long finger and tilted her chin up, noticing the glint of tears in her brown eyes.
    "You are a mere child," he said in a gentle voice, "and yet a child with a tremendous power to make me angry. Get home with you, Miss Emily."
    She stared into his eyes, seeing something there she did not understand, wondering what it was. His gaze seemed twined and joined with hers like the poet's thread. Color came into her face and her bosom rose and fell as she felt her breathing become restricted.
    He released her chin, stood up, and, without another word, turned and stalked out of the coffee room.
    Emily sat for a long time in silence. Never before had she felt so young and immature. In her humiliation, she began to think she had read signs of unhappiness into Mary's demeanor that did not really exist.
    With a little sigh that was half a sob, she got to her feet. She felt as if she had left a very dashing and mondaine Miss Emily Anstey behind. It was a chastened schoolgirl who mounted her horse and rode away.

    * * * *
Mary Anstey sat in the quiet of the church and prayed desperately for faith, strength, and hope to go through with her marriage. After a time, she became aware of someone kneeling beside her. She tried to concentrate on her prayers, but she was plagued with the ridiculous idea that the person beside her could read her thoughts.
    She rose to her feet.
    "Miss Anstey."
    Her silent companion in prayer had been Mr. Cummings.
    "Mr. Cummings. It is a fine day, is it not? Our guests are seeing the countryside at its best."
    "Yes," said Mr Cummings brightly, thinking of the bare, muddy fields outside and the skeletal branches of the winter trees.
    "There is so much confusion and turmoil at home with all the preparations for the wedding," Mary rushed on, "that I felt I had to come here for some peace."
    "And help?"
    "Yes, naturally. One is always in need of spiritual guidance, no matter how ... h-how h-happy one is." And with that, Mary sat down again and burst into tears.
    "Please, don't," begged Mr. Cummings, running his hands through his stiff hair so that it stood up in spikes. "I cannot bear to see you in such distress. I know. You are worried about the wedding. Young brides are often so."

    Mary dried her eyes very carefully and said in a flat little voice, "I don't love him. He frightens me."
    "Ah!" Mr. Cummings let out a long breath and sat down beside her.
    "He is not the man I knew," Mary went on. "He has changed. He is hard and cold. He frightens me."
    "My dear Miss Anstey! The wedding must be called off. You must not go through with it."
    "Yes, I must. I have a duty to my parents. This marriage means so much to them. So very much. I know they seem worldly and silly, but they are very kind."
    "They were not very kind when they did not allow you to marry Devenham in the first place."
    "They thought they were doing the best thing," Mary said wretchedly. One large tear rolled down her cheek and clung to a glossy brown curl, where it hung and shimmered in the candlelight of the church.
    "I was very young. They thought I did not know my mind. And, oh, they were right! I have lived on dreams. He was so young and eager and unsure of himself when he was Captain Tracey, so gentle and kind. Now he is hard and demanding and overbearing."
    "You are