Page:The Strange Case of Miss Annie Spragg (1928).djvu/222

 perior, cultivated and literary figure. Bessie, who had only one standard in judging gentlemen, thought him rather a poor thing. He had been educated at Oxford by old Mr. Winnery and had an accent a little like Mr. Blundon, a fact that helped to put Bessie at her ease, since instead of awing her it now seemed quite familiar.

She put on an air of style, taking care to point out that it was old Mr. Winnery who wanted the marriage and not herself. In fact he had insisted upon marrying her despite the fact that she herself had raised many objections. She knew, she said, that she could make him happy in his declining years. They had already discovered that.

Although she had developed a great deal of "character" since she left the Pot and Pie, she was not to be tempted by promises of money to be paid after the two sisters and Mr. Winnery of Brinoë had come into the old gentleman's estate. The idea indeed made her indignant. She pointed out that she was a friend of Mr. Winnery and not of his money and that she would have married him just the same if he hadn't had a penny, which was quite true. She felt in his debt for the good time at Brighton and she was one of the few whose happiness is scarcely affected by money.

There was nothing to be done and in the end the Italian Mr. Winnery went back gloomily to Italy and the spinster sisters returned to Scarborough to tell day after day the story of how their respectable brother had been kidnapped by a cheap woman young enough to be his granddaughter.