Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. III. BEAUTY AND HEIRESS. A twist of gold was round her hair; a robe Of samite without price, that more expiest Than hid her, clung about her lissome limbs, In colour like the satin shining palm On sallows in the windy gleams of March. Tennyson. MRS. DARTFOED made no more moralisings over Mr. Clare to Mildred, and rested in the hope that her warning had taken effect. So it had, but not quite in the way she intended; her spoken words had given shape to a good many of Mildred's vague fancies, and after long pondering, the wilful young woman deliberately chose to take her own way. She determined not to spoil her pleasure in Mr. Clare's society by any prudish reserves or withdrawals ; he should take his course, and she would shape her own accordingly. Rash girl, she neither dreamt nor feared that all power of shaping might slip from her unawares! In a few days Mildred met Miss Marlowe at one of the choice little dinner parties which Mr. Lewin delighted to give. She looked at the beauty with a new curiosity, as a woman with whom she might have to measure herself. Entire defeat was her first anticipation. Edith Marlowe was a year younger than Mildred, but she had a grave, self possessed manner that was more like a matron than a young girl. She used to talk to and sit with the married ladies, as if her place were rather with them than with frivolous young creatures, whose talk was of balls and of fashions, and who found it needful to consider and contrive their simple toilettes, with much needlework and asking of advice, instead of serenely sending to Paris for the best of everything, and wearing it as a matter of course. Miss Marlowe her Christian name was not in many mouths was tall, with a good figure and carriage; her features were straight and clear, ...
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