Returning home with his wife, the
daughter of a Jacobite exile, he had become a kind of agent in managing
the family estate for his cousin the heiress, Lady Belamour, who
allowed him to live rent-free in this ruinous old Manor-house, the
cradle of the family.
This was all that Harriet and Aurelia knew. The latter had been born
at the Manor, and young girls, if not brought extremely forward, were
treated like children; but Elizabeth, the eldest of the family, who
could remember Vienna, was so much the companion and confidante of
her father, that she was more on the level of a mother than a sister
to her juniors.
"Then you think Aurelia's beau was really Sir Amyas Belamour," said
Harriet, as they sat down to supper.
"So it appears," said Betty, gravely.
"Do you think he will come hither, sister? I would give the world to
see him," continued Harriet.
"He said something of hoping for better acquaintance," softly put in
Aurelia.
"Oh, did he so?" cried Harriet. "For demure as you are, Miss Aura, I
fancy you looked a little above the diamond shoe-buckles!"
"Fie, Harriet!" exclaimed Betty; "I will not have the child tormented.
He ought to come and pay his respects to my father."
"Have you ever seen my Lady?" asked Aurelia.
"That have I, Miss Aurelia," interposed Corporal Palmer, "and a rare
piece of beauty she would be, if one could forget the saying 'handsome
is as handsome does.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31