Alice, or the Mysteries — Book 01 by Baron Edward Bulwer Lytton Lytton
page 20 of 66 (30%)
page 20 of 66 (30%)
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Caroline's--Caroline must be fond of music. She had some doubts of
transferring a cage with two canaries into Caroline's room also; but when she approached the cage with that intention, the birds chirped so merrily, and seemed so glad to see her, and so expectant of sugar, that her heart smote her for her meditated desertion and ingratitude. No, she could not give up the canaries; but the glass bowl with the goldfish--oh, that would look so pretty on its stand just by the casement; and the fish--dull things!--would not miss her. The morning, the noon, the probable hour of the important arrival came at last; and after having three times within the last half-hour visited the rooms, and settled and unsettled and settled again everything before arranged, Evelyn retired to her own room to consult her wardrobe, and Margaret,--once her nurse, now her abigail. Alas! the wardrobe of the destined Lady Vargrave--the betrothed of a rising statesman, a new and now an ostentatious peer; the heiress of the wealthy Templeton--was one that many a tradesman's daughter would have disdained. Evelyn visited so little; the clergyman of the place, and two old maids who lived most respectably on a hundred and eighty pounds a year, in a cottage, with one maidservant, two cats, and a footboy, bounded the circle of her acquaintance. Her mother was so indifferent to dress; she herself had found so many other ways of spending money!--but Evelyn was not now more philosophical than others of her age. She turned from muslin to muslin--from the coloured to the white, from the white to the coloured--with pretty anxiety and sorrowful suspense. At last she decided on the newest, and when it was on, and the single rose set in the lustrous and beautiful hair, Carson herself could not have added a charm. Happy age! Who wants the arts of the milliner at seventeen? "And here, miss; here's the fine necklace Lord Vargrave brought down when |
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