Fitzherbert; Or, Lovers and Fortune-Hunters, by the Authoress of 'The Bride of Siena' Or, Lovers and Fortune-Hunters, by the Authoress of 'The Bride of Siena'. (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. How noiseless falls the foot of time, That only treads on flowers ! William Sfenceb. Time passed rapidly at Cleveland Abbey, rapidly at least to Emily and Henry, for the hours were winged by expectation, novelty, and the undefined but all-engrossing interest of unacknowledged dawning affection. Different indeed in its nature was the attachment that beguiled the hours of these young and beautiful cousins. Henry was all that Emily's girlish fancy had ever conceived of noble and generous. Timid and shrinking herself, there was in his fearless, frank, buoyant nature all the support her gentle clinging temper seemed to need and loved to depend on. Whilst yet almost a boy and consequently without station or importance, her dependence on and admiration of him (implied rather than expressed,) gratified hispride, and, by making him value himself, added not a little to his affection for her. Then too, timid as she was, her mind, stored by reading and reflection beyond her years, gave her, when that timidity wore off, that charm in conversation beyond all other charms, the power of constantly calling forth the resources of her companion's mind by revealing the treasures of her own. She was the first woman he had known who united beauty to innate elegance of manner and a cultivated intellect. Then too she was the only person who quite and undividedly looked upon him as a man, who was influenced by his opinions, who had always addressed him by letter as Henry Fitzherbert, Esq., and who resented more decidedly than himself any affront to his dignity. All these were so many claims added to her rare and winning loveliness. Nor could he do otherwise than fancy himself desperately in love while he gazed on the most beautiful face and form he had ever beheld, and was obliged...