The Conquest of London (Paperback)

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. 1900. Excerpt: ... Something in his tone awoke a suspicion within her. She glanced at him sideways, uneasily. Was it to test her housewifely qualities that he had put that leading question? Perhaps he was one of those men who value their wives according to the puddings they can make. She knew that some of them were like that. How stupid of her not to have taken her cue at once But, perhaps, it was still time to catch herself up. "Of course I don't mean that I never go into the kitchen," she hastily exclaimed, flushing a little with vexation at her own mistake. "Mamma sometimes sends me there with messages to the cook, and when I was small I was very fond of making dolls' tarts. I dare say I could revive the taste, if I tried very hard," she added with a not very successfully arch glance. "It would be a pity to spoil your hands," he said, without moving a muscle of his face, and glancing down at the pretty white trifles which lay in her lap--fingers which had never grasped anything heavier than a parasol, nor pressed anything harder than piano keys. "I generally arrange the flowers too," said Miss Kane, having cast about in her mind for some other commendation which she could truthfully make of herself, and not having found anything else, for by nature she inclined to sincerity. "But surely not those with thorns Scratches are such ugly things " She began to eat her fish pensively, not quite sure of what to make of him, and presently found herself engaged by her other neighbor. Mother and son had barely got outside the gates of Kane Park that night when Mrs. Dyson almost too carelessly remarked that amber was exactly the color for Miss Kane's complexion. "Did it not strike you that she was looking extremely pretty to-night?" the old lady inquired after a moment, having rece...