Alton-Thorpe; A Novel (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. 1880. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. Leonora joined the family the next morning at the breakfast-table, and both Ira and Maurice observed that while her face had lost but little of its pallor, and the expression mentioned by the elder gentleman still rested in her eyes, there was in her manner a determination to prevent her burden proving wearisome to others. Maurice looked at her whenever he saw her attention given to his father or to Mrs. Phillips, but he could not answer the question usually decided by the first, second, or third observation of a woman's face, --he could not tell whether or not it was a handsome face; he could only see that the regular features harmonized with each other, that the lustrous, abundant brown hair, without bangs or frizzes, was fastened in a simple, graceful coil at the back of her well-shaped head, and that the whole contour suggested those fine cameo faces, now rarely seen outside a collection of gems. Her dress, comparatively free from the complexities he had regarded as indispensable to a lady's toilet, accorded well with her face, and Maurice felt himself yielding fhe same sort of critical approval that he would bestow upon an unusually chaste work of art. The conversation gave only surface-touches to commonplace matters, Mrs. Phillips's contribution being repeated regrets that Miss Thorpe partook so sparingly of the carefully-ordered breakfast; but enough was said by Leonora to prove her the possessor of what King Lear declared an excellent thing in a woman, and for this Maurice was very thankful, for a harsh voice was to him a most discordant sound, and he never heard one without wishing to move as far as possible from the speaker. But, in spite of the discovery that Leonora would not prove objectionable from an artistic stand-point, he woul...