The Heiress of Somerton

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: CHAPTER IV. I saw her daunce so comely, Carol and sing so swetely? Laugh, and play so womanly, And looke so debonairely, So goodly speke, and so friendly. Chaucek. Mr. Ferrand persisted in saying that Lilias had not good taste in dress. Very wide eyes of astonishment did she open on first hearing him...
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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: CHAPTER IV. I saw her daunce so comely, Carol and sing so swetely? Laugh, and play so womanly, And looke so debonairely, So goodly speke, and so friendly. Chaucek. Mr. Ferrand persisted in saying that Lilias had not good taste in dress. Very wide eyes of astonishment did she open on first hearing him broach the opinion, that, whenever she wished to look particularly well, she must refer to his judgment, not her own, as to colour and arrangement. At this unlooked-for arrogance, Lilias, with the least possible inclination in the world to pout, laughed, and said the fault could not possibly lie in herself, ?it must rest with her modiste; but, be that as it might, she had no objection whatever to consulting him about her toilette; but she should reserve to herself the right of acting contrariwise to his taste, whenever she thought well; that she was not, she believed, in a state of vassalage; that shehad her own wifely will, like all other wives. To all of which Charles, of course, smilingly assented. Most becomingly attired did she look when she met her guests in the drawing-room before dinner; her finely-proportioned figure was set off by the richest violet velvet dress, which was draped upon the bosom, and drawn low in the centre with a spray of pearl and diamonds. The sleeves hung wide, and were fastened up with pear-shaped pearls to correspond; a little costly Alencon lace at the edge of sleeve and bosom alone took away from the studied plainness of her costume. Even Charles's scrutiny failed to detect a fault; and she turned to her- mirror, after undergoing it, with a look of pleasure, almost triumph, on her spirited face., The best and most dutiful of wives/' said she, sotto voce, the very best, to take such pains to please her husband in her dress. ...