The Cabinet Minister - novelonlinefull.com
You’re read light novel The Cabinet Minister Part 4 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
VALENTINE WHITE.
Well?
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
I think it will pretty considerably wound your susceptibilities to hear that my sister Imogen is being presented by the Mater this afternoon.
VALENTINE WHITE.
[In horror.] Presented!
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
Presented at Court--Drawing-Room, you know.
VALENTINE WHITE.
How dare they! poor little child!
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
Haw, haw! If you'll wait a few minutes you'll see an imposing display of trains and feathers. Some of them are coming on here after the ceremony to drink tea, I believe.
VALENTINE WHITE.
Trains and feathers! Good gracious, Brooke, Imogen must have grown up!
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
Here's her portrait--what?
VALENTINE WHITE.
[Staring at the portrait.] I am right, Brooke--she _has_ grown up!
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
Haw!
VALENTINE WHITE.
Eight years ago she was a romp, with a frock that always had a tear in it, and a head like a cornfield in the wind. Just look at this! While I've been away they've given her a new frock and brushed her hair. What an awful change!
[PROBYN appears at the conservatory entrance.]
PROBYN.
Lady Euphemia Vibart.
[LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART, a handsome, distinguished-looking, and elegantly dressed girl of about twenty, enters. She scarcely notices VALENTINE, who bows formally.]
LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.
No one has returned yet, Brooke?
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
Effie, don't you recollect Mr. White?
LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.
Oh! how do you do? [She shakes hands with him in an affected manner.] We are distantly related, I remember.
VALENTINE WHITE.
Lady Euphemia, I join you in remembering the relationship--and the distance.
LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.
Oh, I don't mean that, Mr. White. At any rate, we were excellent friends many years ago when our cousin Imogen used to give us tea in her school-room. She will be _too_ rejoiced at your return.
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
[At the window.] Hullo, I think pa has come home.
VALENTINE WHITE.
Good-by, Lady Euphemia.
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
I say, Effie, Mr. White won't stay.
LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.
[Indifferently.] What a pity!
BROOKE TWOMBLEY.
He has turned against civilization, you know, and has become a sort of pleasant cannibal.
LADY EUPHEMIA VIBART.
A cannibal! That is _too_ interesting. Pray remain, Mr. White. My brother, Lord Drumdurris, is on duty at the Palace to-day and is coming on here. We all knew each other as children. He will be _too_ delighted.
VALENTINE WHITE.
I recollect Lord Vibart, as he then was, very well. He once burnt me with a red-hot poker.
