Harriette Browne's School-Days |
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Author:
| Browne, Harriette |
ISBN: | 978-0-217-00200-4 |
Publication Date: | Aug 2009 |
Publisher: | General Books LLC
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | USD $20.12 |
Book Description:
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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 III. Eliza Falkland possessed every attraction which was calculated to win our love and esteem. She was beautiful in face and figure, her manners were sweet and gentle, and she was certainly endowed with talents which might have secured her the love and admiration of all around her. But she was the...
More DescriptionPurchase 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 III. Eliza Falkland possessed every attraction which was calculated to win our love and esteem. She was beautiful in face and figure, her manners were sweet and gentle, and she was certainly endowed with talents which might have secured her the love and admiration of all around her. But she was the victim of an unbounded vanity, and her mind unfortunately was not sufficiently strong to steer so precious a freight through the world of fashion and of folly to which she was destined. She was, however, considered by the whole community at Forester House as a perfect non-pareil. Whether she had not by her own self-adulation been the means of establishing this opinion among her schoolfellows cannot, perhaps, be determined; but it is more than probable that it was so. Applause was her idol; every action was guided, every thought was tarnished with a spirit of vain glory and a love of display; and to free herself from even the shadow of blame she would have recourse to any species of finesse, and would even stoop to shelter herself at the expense of another. One morning, Eliza and Harriette were in the music room, whither they had gone for the purpose of practising a duet on the piano and harp. This was a very pretty room, in which Mrs. Durett was in the habit of receiving company when the drawing-room was occupied, and in it was placed a stand of very choice plants. The cousins after having concluded the one hour's practice were leaving the room together, when the sleeve of Eliza's dress brushed against a camellia, and threw it down. She turned very pale on perceiving the mischief she had done, and that the delicate white flower was detached from its stem, andlying on the floor at a little distance from the plant. She soon rallied from her alarm, and immediately commence...