Blogs and book

If
anything better had appeared in the prospect of her life--if any
worthier suitor had come forward, she would have whistled Mr. Smithson
down the wind; but no worthier suitor had offered himself. It was
Smithson or nothing. If she did not accept Smithson, she would go back
to Fellside heavily burdened with debt, and an obvious failure. She
would have run the gauntlet of a London season without definite result;
and this, to a young woman so impressed with her own transcendent
merits, was a most humiliating state of things.
Other people's names were suggested by Mr. Smithson and approved by
Lesbia, and a house party of about fourteen in all was made up. Mr.
Smithson's steam launch would comfortably accommodate that number. He
had a couple of barges for chance visitors, and kept an open table on
board them during the regatta.
The visit arranged, the next question was gowns. Lesbia had gowns enough
to have stocked a draper's shop; but then, as she and Lady Kirkbank
deplored, the difficulty was that she had worn them all, some as many as
three or four times.


Pages:
554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578