HESTER A STORY OF CONTEMPORARY LIFE BY MRS. OLIPHANT Charles Lamb. Charles Lamb. IN THREE VOLUMES VOL. III VOL. III London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1883 The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved MACMILLAN AND CO. LONDON R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor, BREAD STREET HILL. R. Clay, Sons, and Taylor CONTENTS. HESTER. HESTER. CHAPTER I. BUSINESS AND LOVE. Roland had but a few days to spend at Redborough, where he came on the footing of an intimate friend and relation, sought and courted on all hands. His time was already portioned out among the Vernons before he came to pay his respects to Mrs. John and her daughter, though that was on the morning after his arrival. At a still earlier hour Emma had rushed in very tearful and dejected to beg Hester to intercede for her that she might not go away. "If I go now he may never speak at all," Emma said. "I am sure I did everything I could last night to bring it on. I told him Roland had come for me, that he couldn't do without me any longer; and if you could only have seen him, Hester! he grew quite white, poor fellow, and his eyes as big as[Pg 2] saucers! I don't believe it is his fault. It must be his people; so often, when things are going just as you wish, their people will interfere. I am sure he is quite miserable. And if he doesn't speak now, I dare say he will never speak." [Pg 2] "How can you talk as if it were a matter of business?"
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