The ExWife Author:John Lang General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1859 Original Publisher: Routledge, Warnes, and Routledge Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.... more »com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: WHO IS MR. RABY? 239 " Ring up the maid, Eva, and tell her to bring me some hot water -- there's a darling!" "Frank," said I, with my hand upon the bell, "I think it right to tell you that I overheard your conversations with Mathilde in the shop. Now, I entreat of you not to hurt her feelings, or my own, by any allusion to her former capacity, or to the attentions that you once very improperly paid to her in Lancashire. She is a very worthy, good creature, and, without her aid, God only knows what would have become of me." " Well, I wont. But who is Mr. Raby ? And what is Mr. Raby ?" I could not help laughing; for it was the same question, put in the same words, and with the same air, which I had heard Sir George put to Mathilde herself, on the night she gave him a bed in the house. " Mr. Raby, Frank, is an imaginary person." " Then she is not married V" " Yes, she is, unfortunately, to a man named Arnold -- a very worthless person, who is abroad." " I am sorry for that. Do you know, I was really very much struck with her in Lancashire; and if it had not been that I wanted to take Julia home, you would not have got rid of me for a long time. It is not only because she is very good-looking, but she is so well-mannered, and there is something so original and peculiar about her. As for her modesty, you know I used to think that was all affectation." " Then you were very much mistaken, Frank." I rang the bell. Mathilde answered it. The hot water she brought in her hand, placed it on the table, and retired. My brother's temporary toilet comp...« less