When I read a story, I skip the explanations yet the moment I begin towrite one, I find that I must have an explanation. "I rather like being an Elphberg myself." And, by way of closing thediscussion-and also, I must admit, of exasperating my strict littlesister-in-law a trifle more-I observed: At least I had shelved the questionof what (if anything) I ought to do. "Rudolf!" exclaimed my brother's wife, blushing very prettily. "Hardly-with Rudolf about," said Robert, shaking his head. "Then it might be forgotten," she continued.
"I wish you'd take that picture away, Robert," said she. My brother's wife uttered an exclamation of impatience. "I rather like them myself," said I, and, rising, I bowed to theportrait of Countess Amelia. "I wish they didn't crop out," said Rose, still flushed. "It generally crops out once in a generation," said my brother. "Oh! of course he can't help his hair," admitted Rose.
"She objects to my doing nothing and having red hair," said I, in aninjured tone. He glanced at his wife: her cheek was slightly flushed hepatted it caressingly. "I'm so glad Robert's is black!" she cried.Īt this moment Robert (who rises at seven and works before breakfast)came in. Upon this I stroked my hair: I knew quite well what she meant. "Good families are generally worse than any others," she said. Ancestry is, in fact, a matter concerning which the nextobservation of Rose's has some truth. Besides her attractions, she possessed alarge fortune, and my brother Robert was wise enough not to mind abouther ancestry. This remark of mine rather annoyed Rose, for everybody knows (andtherefore there can be no harm in referring to the fact) that, prettyand accomplished as she herself is, her family is hardly of the samestanding as the Rassendylls. "You are nine-and-twenty," she observed, "and you've done nothing but-" I have anincome nearly sufficient for my wants (no one's income is ever quitesufficient, you know), I enjoy an enviable social position: I ambrother to Lord Burlesdon, and brother-in-law to that charming lady, hiscountess. "My dear Rose," I answered, laying down my egg-spoon, "why in the worldshould I do anything? My position is a comfortable one. "I wonder when in the world you're going to do anything, Rudolf?" saidmy brother's wife. The Rassendylls-With a Word on the Elphbergs 1 The Rassendylls-With a Word on the Elphbergs 2 Concerning the Colour of Men's Hair 3 A Merry Evening with a Distant Relative 4 The King Keeps his Appointment 5 The Adventures of an Understudy 6 The Secret of a Cellar 7 His Majesty Sleeps in Strelsau 8 A Fair Cousin and a Dark Brother 9 A New Use for a Tea-Table 10 A Great Chance for a Villain 11 Hunting a Very Big Boar 12 I Receive a Visitor and Bait a Hook 13 An Improvement on Jacob's Ladder 14 A Night Outside the Castle 15 I Talk with a Tempter 16 A Desperate Plan 17 Young Rupert's Midnight Diversions 18 The Forcing of the Trap 19 Face to Face in the Forest 20 The Prisoner and the King 21 If Love Were All! 22 Present, Past-and Future?
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