Three Dukes (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.1904 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III A CHANCE ACQUAINTANCE MAX had been returning from a month's visit to his mother and step-sisters when he met Minnie Carey at Ekaterinslav. Despite the beauty and interest of the historic city, his stay had been a period of by no means unmixed delight. The duke had been dead five years, and for the last three all the duchess's energies had been devoted to seeking husbands for her daughters. To this end she kept open house on almost nothing a year, got into debt, borrowed money from her daughters' companion, ate fried potatoes and macaroni, and dressed in a shabby peignoir on the days when there were no guests. She knew no middle course. There is a children's game of ball with the refrain: "Silk, satin, muslin, rags"; and the dropping of the ball decides the tissue of the child's future garments. The duchess and her daughters wore all four: the three former in public, the latter in private. All the good things--the delicious confectionery, the liqueurs, the wine, even the bon-bons--were kept for guest-days. Floria, the youngest daughter, was always fumbling at locked drawers, and grumbling at the giving over of the spoil to the indifferent crowd. She was the only one of the girls who had any claims to prettiness. Nowadays a vast amount is written and spoken about the Improvement of the Human Race. Those good, serious people who suggest the forming of committees for the regulation of marriages with a view to that improvement, should remember that though our indiscretions do not always serve us well, our deeplaid plots often fail. The most judicious pairing of "the fittest" may not produce "fit" offspring. To take a case in point, the duke and duchess were both of them, physically, at least, of the fittest; but their children--with one exception--we...