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The Colonel's Daughter, Or Winning His Spurs
The Colonel's Daughter Or Winning His Spurs Author:Charles King Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. Big with importance was Mrs. Captain Kaymond when the mail from Prescott finally came in on this hot September evening and there was placed in her... more » hands a letter from no less a personage than " Lady Pelham," as the —th was accustomed to designate the portly matron who shared the joys, sorrows, name, and much more than shared the stipend of the jolly colonel. Seldom was it that her ladyship saw fit to honor the lesser lights of the regiment with letters written in her august hand. " Never indeed," said Mrs. Wilkins, who was not one of her ladyship's satellites, "unless she has an axe to grind or wants chestnuts pulled out of the fire." Mrs. Wilkins was rich in metaphor, but limited in elegance, and from the first had made an unfavorable impression on the new colonel's wife; but none the less was Mrs. Wilkins eager to hear the purport of her ladyship's communication, and so postponed her departure for tea, barely restraining her impatience until Mrs. Raymond had finished the eight closely- written pages and looked up, expectant of question. " What does she say about Grace and Mr. Glenham 1" was the first propounded. "W—ell," replied the recipient, slowly. "You mustn't mention it to a soul, because she says I'm not to allude to it; but, as you were here when the lettername, why, I can't see how she can expect me to say that she did not mention tht subject when she did ; but you mustn't breathe it. They are not engaged." "Oh, of course I knew that all along," persisted Mrs. Wilkins; " but what does she say f" And so after much interchange of solemn promise never to tell a soul or betray one another, Mrs. Raymond read to Mrs. Wilkins an extract pretty much as follows from the last page of her ladyship's letter: " Oh, I knew there was something else I wante...« less