A Hypocritical Romance; And Other Stories (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.1896 Excerpt: ... THE EVOLUTION OF A BONNET MISS ELIZABETH MOORE was quite a philosopher in her way, though no one would have been more astonished than she to have been told so. In fact, I doubt if her ideas about philosophers were at all distinct. Had you insisted upon a definition, she would have told you that Thornbridge, being a busy place, had no use for a class of individuals who talked instead of working, and who spent their time in thinking about things instead of buckling down and doing them. Thornbridge was a town in which the spirit of work reigned supreme, and the thrifty inhabitants had very few idle moments in which to grow unhappy or discontented; they lived in an ideal and Arcadian atmosphere, which was as yet unspoiled by any current from the great sea of manufacturing interests. The beauty of the country was, however, beginning to attract a rapidly increasing summer population to the picturesque old town, who, with their fancy cottages and wonderful equipages, filled the sturdy inhabitants with a kind of awe, which soon gave place to a hearty dislike, as the invaders increased in numbers, and, without saying by your leave, proceeded to erect casinos and bowling-alleys and numberless other things for their own benefit, into which the worthy natives received no invitation to enter. Moreover, the knowledge of the fact that the land obtained from the honest farmers for a mere song was sold again to others for five and six times the original amount aroused their righteous indignation, which was not lessened by the visitations of cruel and sweetly smiling ladies, who, on some pretense or other, found their way into the neat cottages and farmhouses, and who, by virtue of a few fair words and a surprisingly few silver coins, carried off old clocks, old spinning-whe...