"Oh, Uncle Bazalgette! Oh, Uncle
Bazalgette!"
"Why, what is the matter? Why, the child is ill. Don't gasp like that,
Lucy. Come, pluck up courage; I am sure to be on your side, you know.
What is it?"
"Uncle, you are always so kind to me; you know you are."
"Oh, am I? Noble old fellow!"
"Oh, don't make me laugh! ha! ha! oh! oh! oh! ha! oh!"
"Confound it, I have sent her into hysterics; no, she is coming round.
Ten thousand million devils, has anybody been insulting the child in
my house? They have. My wife, for a guinea."
"No, no, no. It is about Mr. Dodd."
"Mr. Dodd? oho!"
"I have ruined him."
"How have you managed that, my dear?"
Then Lucy, all in a flutter, told Mr. Bazalgette what the reader has
just learned.
He looked grave. "Lucy," said he, "be frank with me. Is not Mr. Dodd
in love with you?"
"I _will_ be frank with _you,_ dear uncle, because you are
frank. Poor Mr. Dodd did love me once; but I refused him, and so his
good sense and manliness cured him directly."
"So, now that he no longer loves you, you love him; that is so like
you girls."
"Oh, no, uncle; how ridiculous! If I loved Mr. Dodd, I could repair
the cruel injuries I have done him with a single word. I have only to
recall my refusal, and he-- But I do not love Mr. Dodd. Esteem him I
do, and he has saved my life; and is he to lose his health, and his
character, and his means of honorable ambition for that? Do you not
see how shocking this is, and how galling to my pride? Yes, uncle, I
_have_ been insulted.
Pages:
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465