This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...in Mrs Rafferty'B entourage likely to be interested who first heard of her grand project. It was in the early days after their motor-launch had been delivered that Richard, having deposited Elinor at the hotel, where she had an engagement with some one of her friends, steered a course up the lake. ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1920 edition. Excerpt: ...in Mrs Rafferty'B entourage likely to be interested who first heard of her grand project. It was in the early days after their motor-launch had been delivered that Richard, having deposited Elinor at the hotel, where she had an engagement with some one of her friends, steered a course up the lake. Beyond the second basin there was a small bay which had always attracted him, when he passed, by its remoteness. The bay was formed by the spurs of the mountains which shelved right down into the lake, creating a rocky shoal dangerous to steamers. Partly because of this difficulty of approach by water except in small boats, partly, as he afterwards discovered, because only mule-paths linked the tiny fishing village to the highroad far away behind the mountains, the spot had preserved a character of complete isolation, melancholy perhaps, but intensely attractive to Richard as an antidote to the boredom of social demands. This bay was now his objective, and soon the motor-launch lay just beyond the shoal water. He did not dare attempt to reach the shore, fearing to ground on the rocks and expose the daintily constructed craft to damage. After repeated shouts a boy waved to him and, a moment later, pushed off in a flat-bottomed boat which lay drawn up on the shingle. He was a picturesque and tattered little fellow of nine, with large, intelligent brown eyes. Richard could hardly understand a word he said; his dialect was a variant of the sufficiently difficult Coniasco, but with the help of his chauffeur boatman he explained that he wanted to come ashore and, later, either to be rowed back to Aquafonti or, failing that, to be guided back by the mountain paths. In the animated colloquy which ensued between boatman and boy Richard caught the word...
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