Wilmay and other stories of women Author:Barry Pain 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: that It is our holiday—the feminine equivalent of the bachelor dinner." "How delightful! I—I don't want to see anything male for some time. When I got your te... more »legram this morning I was overjoyed. I'd thought that I was quite alone in London, and I'm so thankful to Jean Carton for having kept you too." " Yes, I have to see dear Jean's wedding." Lady Cathay sighed deeply. "It is rather untidy of her to get married in London at the end of August, but I was so fond of her. Poor Jean 1 I'm sorry that your own reason for waiting is so much more sad." " Meme chose—you wait for a wedding, and I for a funeral." " Bertha, how shocking ! And your Uncle Charles is not dead yet! " " Precisely ; that is why I wait. Do let me speak freely, dear Agnes, even if I am shocking. It is not as if there were any third person present, and I don't think I've spoken the truth for three months; it is such a luxury. I detest Uncle Charles. I don'tshow it to him, because I do not want to hurt any one's feelings, and one must be specially kind to the dying. I send him fruit, which he can't eat, and flowers, which he doesn't want, and sit by his bedside, which bores him; and he will leave his money to Hubert and me, because there is no one else to whom to leave it; but I detest him quand meme." " Yes, yes," said Lady Cathay fervently; " there is no divine or moral compulsion upon us to love our uncles, and I don't pretend to be very fond of some of mine; but to say that marriage and death are the same thing " " Well, we are both quite married, you know. Don't you see what I mean ? " " Perhaps, a little—you are so strange ! Come and tell me about it, dearest." Lady Cathay rose, with a rustle of grey silk. She was a tall woman, with a good figure and a handsome face. Bertha Vane was a li...« less