The Big Drum - novelonlinefull.com
You’re read light novel The Big Drum Part 12 online at NovelOnlineFull.com. Please use the follow button to get notification about the latest chapter next time when you visit NovelOnlineFull.com. Use F11 button to read novel in full-screen(PC only). Drop by anytime you want to read free – fast – latest novel. It’s great if you could leave a comment, share your opinion about the new chapters, new novel with others on the internet. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest, latest novel everyday. Enjoy
However, I wasn't destined to share the earliest of the London triumphs. [_Bitterly._] Mine awaited me in Paris, and at Vaudemont-Baudricourt, as the Comtesse de Chaumie! [_Shivering._]
Ugh-h-h-h----!
[_She is about to sit in the chair on the left when he comes to her impulsively and restrains her._
PHILIP.
My poor girl----!
OTTOLINE.
[_With abandon._] Ah----!
PHILIP.
My poor dear girl!
OTTOLINE.
It's a relief to me to open my heart to you, Philip. [_He leads her to the fauteuil-stool._] Robbie won't interrupt us yet awhile, will he?
PHILIP.
We'll kick him out if he does. [_They sit, close together, upon the fauteuil-stool._] Oh, but he won't! This is a deep-laid plot of the old chap's----
OTTOLINE.
Plot?
PHILIP.
To invite us here to-day, you and me, to--to----
OTTOLINE.
_Amener un rapprochement?_
PHILIP.
Exactly.
OTTOLINE.
[_Softly._] Ha, ha! Dear old Robbie! [_He laughs with her._] Dear, dear old Robbie! [_Her laughter dies out, leaving her with a serious, appealing face._] Phil----
PHILIP.
Eh?
OTTOLINE.
Your sneer--your sneer about me and the papers----
PHILIP.
Sneer?
OTTOLINE.
I detected it. Almost the first thing you said to me when I arrived was that you'd been gathering news of me lately from the papers!
PHILIP.
[_Gently._] Forgive me.
OTTOLINE.
It's been none of my doing; I've finished with _le sn.o.bbisme_ entirely.
[_Pleadingly._] You don't doubt me?
PHILIP.
[_Patting her hand._] No--no.
OTTOLINE.
Nowadays I detest coming across my name in print. But my people--[_with a little_ moue] they will persist in----!
PHILIP.
Beating the big drum?
OTTOLINE.
Ha! [_Brushing her hair from her brow fretfully._] Oh! Oh, Phil, it was blindness on my part to return to them--sheer blindness!
PHILIP.
Blindness?
OTTOLINE.
They've been urging me to do it ever since my husband's death; so I had ample time to consider the step. But I didn't realize, till I'd settled down in Ennismore Gardens, how thoroughly I----
PHILIP.
[_Finding she doesn't continue._] How thoroughly----?
OTTOLINE.
