Read "Katharine Lauderdale, Volume 2" by F. Marion Crawford online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Ralston shook himself and stamped his feet softly upon the rug as he took off his overcoat in the hall of Robert Lauderdale's house. He was conscious that he was nervous and tried to restore the balance of forces by a physical effort, but he was not very successful. The man went before him and ushered him into the same room in which Katharine had been received that morning. The windows were already shut, and several shaded lamps shed a soft light upon the bookcases, the great desk and the solid central figure of the great man. Ralston had not passed the threshold before he was conscious that Katharine was not present, as he had hoped that she might be. His excitement gave place once more to the cold sensation of something infinitely disappointing, as he took the old gentleman's hand and then sat down in a stiff, high-backed chair opposite to him -- to be ‘looked over,' he said to himself.
"So you're married," said Robert Lauderdale, abruptly opening the conversation.