"Allen, Grant - Miss Cayley's Adventures 01 - The Adventure of the Cantankerous Old Lady" - читать интересную книгу автора (Allen Grant)

first-beginning impressed itself.'

The old lady laughed aloud.

'Don't jabber it to me, child,' she cried. 'I hate the
lingo. It's the one tongue on earth that even a pretty
girl's lips fail to render attractive. You yourself make
faces over it. What's your name, young woman?'

'Lois Cayley.'

'Lois! What a name! I never heard of any Lois in my life
before, except Timothy's grandmother. You're not anybody's
grandmother, are you?'

'Not to my knowledge,' I answered, gravely.

She burst out laughing again.

'Well, you'll do, I think,' she said, catching my arm.
'That big mill down yonder hasn't ground the originality
altogether out of you. I adore originality. It was clever
of you to catch at the suggestion of this arrangement. Lois
Cayley, you say; any relation of a madcap Captain Cayley
whom I used once to know, in the Forty-second Highlanders?'

'His daughter,' I answered, flushing. For I was proud of
my father.

'Ha! I remember; he died, poor fellow; he was a good
soldier--and his'--I felt she was going to say 'his fool of
a widow,' but a glance from me quelled her; 'his widow went
and married that good-looking scapegrace, Jack Watts-
Morgan. Never marry a man, my dear, with a double-barrelled
name and no visible means of subsistence; above all, if
he's generally known by a nickname. So you're poor Tom
Cayley's daughter, are you? Well, well, we can settle this
little matter between us. Mind, I'm a person who always
expects to have my own way. If you come with me to
Schlangenbad, you must do as I tell you.'

'I think I could manage it--for a week,' I answered,
demurely.

She smiled at my audacity. We passed on to terms. They
were quite satisfactory. She wanted no references. 'Do I
look like a woman who cares about a reference? What are
called characters are usually essays in how not to say it.
You take my fancy; that's the point! And poor Tom Cayley!
But, mind, I will not be contradicted.'