Run Eric Walters Ebook Download
Pablo Barjavel
For their part, the English and the French in North America, who had been on the brink of war when the Sundering came, now have to contemplate what would once have been unthinkable. They must not simply forge a military alliance against the rising dark powers but may even have to unite politically behind the young English prince Edward, now the only person of royal blood left in the terrifying world created by the Sundering.
The clock on the mantel-piece chimed one. Neither seemed to notice it,for Barbara was becoming autobiographical. Her story was ill-arrangedand discursive, with personal characteristics of Lord Crawleighsandwiched between her life at Government House, Ottawa, and a thwartedromance between her brother and a designing American. She flitted fromher four years in India to Viceregal Lodge, Dublin, with a procession ofdamaging encounters with her father as stepping-stones in the narrative.(From her account it was Lord Crawleigh who sustained most of thedamage.) He could never shake off a certain pro-consular manner inprivate life and had reduced his sons to blundering and untrustworthyaides-de-camp and his wife to a dignified but trembling squaw. Barbaraalone resisted him.
At noon he tidied his papers and lighted a cigarette while he waited fora call from his agent. The "Divorce" was being produced in America; andfor an arid, perplexing half-hour Mr. Grierson, with eyes half-closed inthe grey58 smoke of his cigar, pushed cables, letters, copies and a draftagreement across the table.
The Neave fortunes had their origin in the character and position ofLord Chancellor Crawleigh; and history has dealt faithfully with him.John, first baron, acquired the Abbey from a misguided supporter of the'15 and left it with sufficient means for its upkeep to his grandsonWilliam, the second baron and first viscount, who built on surefoundations. Common sense and a certain practical alertness in thehalcyon days of the Enclosure Acts did nothing to diminish the patrimonyof Charles, fourth baron, third viscount and first earl, though theestate came to be temporarily encumbered when the good fellowship ofJohn, the second earl, won him the costly regard of the Regent. At atime when the House of Commons was pulling one of its long faces over aperiodical schedule of the Prince's debts, a Garter became vacant; andHis Royal Highness, with no other means of marking his affectionategratitude, secured it for his friend with a further step to the covetedrank of marquess. Thereafter the public life of the family wascharacterized by honour and integrity; and the Garter, re-bestowed assoon as surrendered, became a habit. The second marquess held a sinecureunder Lord Aberdeen; another flitted to and fro in shadowy retirement asa Lord-in-Waiting; a third, exploring the United States for thebroadening of his mind, married an American wife.122
Eric spoke vaguely of the novel, the play and the course of lectures inAmerica, remembering the threadbare com239monplaces of such illustratedinterviews as he had read; it were fruitless to fancy that he could varythe form or fact of what was being so industriously scribbled down.
She stopped him with a shudder, and Eric found a difficulty in curbinghis impatience. Trying a fresh cast, he described his latest invitationto lecture in America. Barbara listened with half her attention,mechanically agreeing that it would be an experience and a change,mechanically accepting his figures and wounding him with an indifferencewhich was made greater by her early love of sharing his triumphs withhim. He hunted through a pile241 of letters and gave her one in which theprevious occupant of his flat offered generous terms for the remainderof the lease.
A very little more of this erotic battledore-and-shuttlecock would sendthem both out of their minds. It was a mistake to write, when bothneeded a holiday. He telephoned to his agent and walked to Covent Gardenfor a consultation about the lecturing-tour in America.
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