'
'Lady Lesbia Haselden is a very different person from a country parson's
daughter,' answered her chaperon; 'Smithson told me all about it
afterwards. He was really taken with Belle's fine figure and good
complexion; but one of her particular friends told him of her foolish
talk about her sisters, and how well she meant to get them married when
she was Mrs. Smithson. This disgusted him. He went down to Essex,
reconnoitered the parsonage, saw one of the sisters hanging out cuffs
and collars in the orchard--another feeding the fowls--both in shabby
gowns and country-made boots; one of them with red hair and freckles.
The mother was bargaining for fish with a hawker at the kitchen door.
And these were the people he was expected to import into Park Lane,
under ceilings painted by Leighton. These were the people he was to
exhibit on board his yacht, to cart about on his drag. "I had half made
up my mind to marry the girl, but I would sooner have hung myself than
marry her mother and sisters so I took the first train for Dover, en
route for Algiers," said Smithson, and upon my word I could hardly blame
the man,' concluded Lady Kirkbank.
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