"And so I have persuaded her to go to Penzance for a week or two, and
I go with her to look after her. Mr. Trelyon, would you be kind enough
to keep Rock for me until we come back? I am afraid of the servants
neglecting him."
"You needn't be afraid of that: he's not one of the ill-favored--every
one will attend to him," said Trelyon; and then he added, after a
minute or two of silence, "The fact is, I think I shall be at Penzance
also while you are there. My cousin Juliott is coming here in about a
fortnight to celebrate the important event of my coming of age, and I
promised to go for her. I might as well go now."
She said nothing.
"I might as well go any time," he said rather impatiently. "I haven't
got anything to do. Do you know, before you came along just now, I was
thinking what a very useful person you were in the world, and what
a very useless person I was--about as useless as this little cur. I
think somebody should take me up and heave me into a river. And I was
wondering, too"--here he became a little more embarrassed and slow of
speech--"I was wondering what you would say if I spoke to you, and
gave you a hint that sometimes--that sometimes one might wish to cut
this lazy life if one only knew how, and whether so very busy a person
as yourself mightn't--don't you see?--give one some notion--some sort
of hint, in fact--"
"Oh, but then, Mr. Trelyon," she said quite cheerfully, "you would
think it very strange if I asked you to take any interest in the
things that keep me busy.
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