Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1861. Excerpt: ... placed her in a higher sphere--she has a right to hold herself above me, and I have none to think it should be otherwise." Mrs. Keith once said to her husband--"Poor Miss Bell must feel very lonely of an evening. I should like to ask her to come down into the drawing-room sometimes. Would it be any harm do you think?" To which he replied--"I wish, with all my heart, you could do so, my darling. But I am afraid we must not think of it. She is decidedly an appendage to Lady Wilsden, and it is her ladyship's right to dispose of her as she thinks fit. We cannot interfere, for if you were to make a companion of Miss Bell, it might be considered by your guests as a tacit reproof to them for not doing so!" Mrs. Keith owned the truth of this argument, and so the matter dropped. Mrs. Ballantine was much more accessible than her daughter; but Miriam saw very little of her, and when they did meet, there was the same bar of inequality that is ever a check to the freedom of social intercourse. It is the ungenial frost that keeps the blossoms of thought and feeling imprisoned within their shrine. Still, there were many pleasures to be found in this new life, and one of the greatest that Miriam enjoyed was, to perceive a warm and increasing affection towards herself, on the part of her young pupils, two charming little girls, the one about six, the other five years of age. There was another source of happiness, too, in the uniform kindness of General Keith, and that imaginary resemblance to her father, which still encircled him like a bright halo, giving an indescribable interest to every word and look he bestowed upon her. In her walks with the children, about the grounds, she frequently met with him; and, although the interview seldom lasted more than a few minutes, t...
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