“Good-bye, Lady Marjorie—good-bye.”
One last look—and then she was gone. All the freshness and brightness of the room seemed to go with her. Herbert shivered, and rang the bell for a lamp; for some inexplicable reason he could not endure the glare of the electric light just then. All the evening he remained in his chair, deep in thought; and having left his dinner untested, went despondently to bed.
On the following afternoon, the weather being congenial, he went for a stroll. Almost involuntarily his steps turned towards Durlston House, although he had not the slightest intention of calling there. To his surprise he found all the blinds down, the house having an unwonted appearance of desertion. Without pausing to think twice, he rang the bell, and inquired for Lady Marjorie Stonor. The lodge-keeper informed him that her mistress had left suddenly for London, where she intended leaving her son at school. From thence she would proceed to Paris en route for the South. More she did not know.
Karne thanked the woman and turned away. Suddenly he paused, and looking up at the silent windows, raised his hat, as though greeting a friend. “Poor Marjorie!” he exclaimed softly to himself, heaving a deep sigh. “Poor little Marjorie!”
Then, squaring his shoulders, he resumed his walk.
CHAPTER XIII
THE ACME FURNISHING CO.
“I think you are the most ungrateful and undutiful child,” said Mrs. Friedberg, surveying her youngest daughter with keen disapproval. “Your Pa and I have done our very best for you ever since you were born; and now that we are anxious to get you settled, you behave just like a silly schoolgirl, doing your utmost to thwart our wishes. It’s all the fault of those penny novelettes you’ve been reading. Now, remember this: I forbid you to bring any more of those trashy things into the house; and every one I find I’ll burn. Do you hear?”
Dinah stared back sullenly. “Yes, I hear,” she retorted pertly. “I should be deaf if I didn’t. You talk loud enough, anyhow, ma.”
Then she sat down at the table, and went on with her interrupted letter to David Salmon, which had been the cause of her mother’s outburst of wrath. It really was most annoying from Mrs. Friedberg’s point of view. The Rev. Isaac Abrahams had found a very nice man possessing the necessary qualifications for a chosan;[20] and Dinah, taking a foolish dislike to him at their first meeting, refused point-blank to have anything to do with him, scarcely treating him with civility. Moreover, she declared her intention of marrying David Salmon or nobody: and as David earned barely sufficient to gratify his extravagant tastes, much less keep a wife, such a decision was ridiculous in the extreme.
“What fault have you to find with Mr. Finkelstein?” her mother asked in exasperation. “He may not be good-looking, but looks are not everything. He’s got a good business, which is the chief thing, and I’m sure he is a very amiable sort of fellow. Girls are so particular nowadays. I suppose you would prefer one of those penny-novelette young men, with blue eyes and a curly moustache, eh?”