Read "Sink or Swim? , Volume III" by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Well, mother," John said airily, and with the laudable desire of making / things pass off with ease and comfort to all parties -- "well, mother, / we've got Honor back again, you see; but I'm sorry you got up. I tried / to keep Hannah quiet, but she's got a foot like a cart-horse, and a / voice like a peacock, hang her!"
"I wasn't asleep, my dear," sighed the old lady, seating herself with a / dignified air -- the effect of which was slightly neutralised by the / above-named dressing-gown and cap -- "I wasn't asleep; it ain't easy to be / with all that is going on; " and she folded her aged hands before her / with an air of patient resignation, which was not without its effect / upon poor John. For that excellent man, at this crisis of his hitherto / unexciting life, was really very greatly to be pitied. Longing, above / all things, for peace and quietness -- loving his young wife with a deep / and passionate fondness, and sincerely wishing that his respected parent / might find a dutiful daughter in his precious Honor -- it was to him a / terrible thought that a "scene" of some kind must inevitably take place / before matters could run smoothly again between his womankind.