Read "Helen of Troy; and Rose" by Phyllis Bottome online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Edith hardly turned her head to say "Come in! " to the timid knock at her door. She was sitting at her desk, doing accounts, and puzzled as usual by her immaculate predecessor's example -- an example which, "as the most sensible of women," she tried hard to follow, but she was frequently overcome by the invincible malice of pounds, shillings, and pence.
The pause, however, that followed arrested her attention, and she turned to meet the eyes of her step-son with a thrill of astonishment. He had never before voluntarily entered her private boudoir, and there was an air about his whole person which betokened the unusual, though he suppressed what he could only consider a weakness as well as he could.