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The New Tenant, a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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Chapter 26. Helen Decides To Go Home |
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_ CHAPTER XXVI. HELEN DECIDES TO GO HOME Mr. Benjamin Levy's surmise had been an accurate one. Late in the afternoon of that day, Helen Thurwell called at the little office off the Strand, and when she left it an hour later, she had in her pocket a packet of letters, and Mr. Levy had in his safe a check and promissory note for five thousand pounds. Both were very well satisfied--Mr. Levy with his money, and Helen with the consciousness that she had saved her lover from the consequences of what she now regarded as her great folly. She was to have dined out that evening with her aunt, but when the time to dress came, she pleaded a violent headache, and persuaded Lady Thurwell, who was a good-natured little woman, to take an excuse. "But, my dear Helen, you don't look one bit ill," she had ventured to protest, "and the Cullhamptons are such nice people. Are you sure that you won't come?" "If you please, aunt," she had begged, "I really do want to stay at home this evening;" and Lady Thurwell had not been able to withstand her niece's imploring tone, so she had gone alone. Helen spent the evening as she had planned to. She took her work down into the room where they had been the night before, and where this wonderful thing had happened to her. Then she leaned back in her low chair--the same chair--and gave herself up to the luxury of thought; and when a young woman does that she is very far gone indeed. It was all so strange to her, so bewildering, that she needed time to realize it. And as she sat there, her eyes, full of a soft dreamy light, fixed upon vacancy, and her lips parted in a happy smile, she felt a sudden longing to be back again upon the moorland cliffs round Thurwell Court, out in the open country with her thoughts. This town season with its monotonous round of gayety was nothing to her now. More than ever, in the enlarged and sweeter life which seemed opening up before her, she saw the littleness and enervating insipidity of it all. She would go down home, and take some books--the books he was fond of--and sit out on the cliffs by the sea and read and dream, and think over all he had said to her, and look forward to his coming; it should be there he would find her. They two alone would stand together under the blue sky, and wander about in the sunshine over the blossoming moors. Would not this be better than meeting him again in a crowded London drawing-room? She knew that he would like it best. So when Lady Thurwell returned from her party, and was sitting in her room in a very becoming dressing gown, yawning and thinking over the events of the evening, there was a little tap at the door, and Helen entered, similarly attired. "Please tell me all about it," she begged, drawing up a chair to the fire. "My headache is quite gone." "So I should imagine," remarked Lady Thurwell. "I never saw you look better. What have you been doing to yourself, child? You look like Aphrodite 'new bathed in Paphian wells.'" "If you mean to insinuate that I've had a bath," laughed Helen, "I admit it. Now, tell me all about this evening." Which of course Lady Thurwell did, and found a good deal to say about the dresses and the menu. "By the bye," she wound up, with a curious look at her niece, "Sir Allan Beaumerville was there, and seemed a good deal disappointed at the absence of a certain young lady." "Indeed!" answered Helen. "That was very nice of him. And now, aunt, do you know what I came in to say to you?" Lady Thurwell shook her head. "Haven't any idea, Helen. Has anyone been making love to you?" Helen shook her head, but the color gathered in her cheeks, and she took up a screen, as though to protect her face from the fire. "I want to go home, aunt. Don't look so startled, please. I heard from papa this morning, and he's not very well, and Lord Thurwell comes back to-morrow, so you won't be lonely, and I've really quite made my mind up. Town is very nice, but I like the country best." "Like the country best in May!" Lady Thurwell gasped. "My dear child, have you taken leave of your senses?" "Not quite, aunt," Helen answered, smiling. "Only it is as I say. I like the country best, and I would really rather go home." Lady Thurwell considered for a full minute. Being a very juvenile matron, she had by no means enjoyed her _role_ as chaperon to an acknowledged beauty. She had offered it purely out of good nature, and because, although only related by marriage--Lord Thurwell was the elder brother of Mr. Thurwell, of Thurwell Court, and the head of the family--still there was no one else to perform such a service for Helen. But if Helen did really not care for it, and wished to return to her country life, why there was no necessity for her to make a martyr of herself any longer. "You really mean this, Helen?" "I do indeed, aunt." "Then it is settled. Make your own arrangements. I have liked having you, child, and whenever you choose to come to me again you will be welcome. But of course, it is not everyone who cares for town life, and if you do not, you are quite right to detach yourself from it. I'm afraid I know several young men who'll take your sudden flight very much to heart; and one who isn't particularly young." "Nonsense!" laughed her niece. "There'll be no mourning on my account." "We shall see," remarked Lady Thurwell, sententiously. "If one person does not find his way down to Thurwell Court after you before long, I shall be surprised." "Please don't let anyone do anything so stupid, aunt," pleaded Helen with sudden warmth. "It would be--no good." Lady Thurwell lifted her eyebrows, and looked at her niece with a curious little smile. "Who is it?" she asked quietly. But Helen only laughed. Her secret was too precious to part with--yet. _ |
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