If it eased your mind, no doubt he would consent to your paying the
rates and taxes."
"But, mother," again implored Armine, "you said you would not force
me to go to Madeira, with the Evelyns!"
"Are they going to Madeira?" exclaimed Jock, thunderstruck.
"Did you not hear it from Cecil?"
"He has been away on leave for the last week. This is a sudden
resolution."
"Yes, Fordham goes on coughing, and Sydney has a bad cold, caught at
the wedding. Did you see her?"
"Oh yes, I saw her," he mechanically answered, while his mother
continued—-
"Mrs. Evelyn has been pressing me most kindly to let Armine go with
them; but as Dr. Leslie assures me it is not essential, and he seems
so much averse to it himself—-"
"You know, mother, how I wish to hold my poor neglected Woodside to
the last," cried Armine. "Why is my health always to be made the
excuse for deserting it?"
"You are not the only reason," said his mother. "It is hard to keep
Esther in banishment all this time, and I am in constant fear of a
row about the shooting with that Gilbert Gould."
"Has he been at it again!" exclaimed Jock, fiercely.
"You are as bad as Rob," she said. "I fully expect a disturbance
between them, and I had rather be no party to it. Oh, I shall be
very thankful to get away, I feel like a prisoner on parole.
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