Author Description

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. 1889. Excerpt:... THAT GIRL IN BLACK. PAET I. He was spoilt--deplorably, absurdly spoilt. But, so far, that was perhaps the worst that could fairly be said against him. There was genuine manliness still, some chivalry even, yet struggling spasmodically to make itself felt, and--what was practically, perhaps, of more account as a preservative--some small amount of originality in his character. He had still a good deal to learn, and something too to unlearn before he could take rank as pastmaster in the stupid worldliness of his class and time. For he was neither so blase nor so cynical as he flattered himself, but young enough to affect being both to the extent of believing his own affectations real. He was popular; his position and income were fair enough to have secured this to a considerable extent in these, socially speaking, easy-going days, even had he been without the further advantages of good looks and a certain arrogance, not to say insolence of bearing, which, though nothing can be acquired with greater facility and at less expenditure of brain tissue, appears to be the one not-to-be-disputed hall-mark of the period. Why he went to Mrs. Englewood,s reception that evening he could scarcely have told, or perhaps he would have vaguely shrunk from owning even to himself the real motives--of sincere though feehle loyalty to old associations, of faintly stirring gratitude for much kindness in the past--which had prompted the effort. For Mrs. Englewood was neither very rich, nor very beautiful, nor--worst of 'nors,--very fashionable; scarcely, indeed, to be reckoned as of notre monde in any very exclusive sense of the words, though kindly, and fairly refined, irreproachable as wife and mother, and so satisfied with her lot as to be uninterestingly free from social ambit...