General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1862 Original Publisher: B. Tauchnitz Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. It was not a very easy matter to draw Sarah into a conversation, especially in the evening. I had to watch my opportunity very carefully. At ten exactly the door opened in the dark distance, and Ellis came rumbling along through the dim depths behind the screen with the sherry and biscuits. Just at the same moment Sarah smoothed out the paper carefully, laid it down, as she always did, on the top of her wool-basket, and held out her hands to warm them at the fire. They were very thin hands in their black lace mits, and they were a little rheumatic sometimes, though she did not like to confess it. She kept rubbing them slowly before the fire. I poured out her glass of sherry, put the plate of biscuits within her reach, and drew my chair nearer, that I might be sure of hearing what she said. Sarah took no notice of my movements; she rubbed diligently one of her forefingers, the joints of which were a little enlarged, and never so much as glanced at me. "Did you know anything about this cousin Richard of ours, Sarah?" said I. She did not answer just for a moment, but kept on rubbing her forefinger; when that was finished The Last of the Mortimers. I, 2 she answered, "I knew a good deal about him once. I would have married him if they had let me, in the old times." I was so thunderstruck by this unexpected frankness that I scarcely knew what to say. At last I stumbled out somehow - -- "You would have married him " with a k...