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. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...two nicer girls it would be hard to find in a long summer's day in England--the country of nice girls. However, after Silvester's introduction and visit, of course an acquaintance occurred between the Squire's family and the young ladies. Sensible girls, and devoid of prejudice, they thoroughly enjoyed the new ...
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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. 1873 edition. Excerpt: ...two nicer girls it would be hard to find in a long summer's day in England--the country of nice girls. However, after Silvester's introduction and visit, of course an acquaintance occurred between the Squire's family and the young ladies. Sensible girls, and devoid of prejudice, they thoroughly enjoyed the new society into which they were thrown. Their mother did not. She, cordially admiring an Italian adventurer, an heretical colonial bishop, an idiotic preacher of adulterated Arianism, had completely severed herself from her daughters. They were girls who, if their father had lived, might possibly have been even better than they were--though there was a practical difficulty about it. When Mrs. Selfe discovered that they were pretty intimate with the Silchesters, she became pallidly furious. " Those Silchesters /" This, observe, is a mental ejaculation. What else she ejaculated let us not conjecture, only hoping it was consonant with good strong orthodox Unitarianism. Let us hope it con-soned. By the way, that last word hints the idea that we do not use our complex vernacular English as we ought. Professors of the noblest language in the world, we do not use it as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Coleridge, used it. Having most gloriously expressive powers of utterance, our journalists and novelists prefer the meagre commonplace which you get from a maid-servant or an auctioneer. The old lady was on the whole a study; not a pleasant study, though she had her good points. She was slightly froggy. She liked her garden, and believed in Gilbert White of Selborne: but somehow or other her interest in flowers did not make her feel pleasantly towards her daughters--pretty flowers of humanity though they were. One day, after a quarrel with her eldest...
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