Dora (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 III. rpHERE is a cruel superstition amongst sailors. - If one of the crew should fall overboard and be drowned at the beginning of the voyage, it is a pity, to be sure, but then it is also a sure token that the weather will be fair, and the journey prosperous. That ship can never be wrecked which has witnessed such a catastrophe. Even so it seemed to be with Mr. Templemore and his wife. Death had taken her brother, and a stormy wave removed his betrothed from their ken, whilst John Luan went adrift all unconsciously; and now their two barques could sail side by side on smooth seas, beneath a serene sky, with the gentlest winds to speed them. Did they think of this as they entered Deenah together ? Oh for the mutability of the human heart The woman for whom Mr. Templemore had prepared that home was now forgotten, and as he had given every passionate emotion of his heartto that bright-haired girl by his side, so had she surrendered her whole love to the happy rival of her own adored brother. Yes, spite all the wrecks and ruins of the past, spite its sorrows, and a lonely grave, they were blest. Dora felt it as they walked through the grounds, and she saw the sky, the mountains, the woodlands, all in a flame with the burning radiance from the west, whilst the whole house glittered afar like a fairy palace, in the hazy glow of the setting sun. She felt it as they passed beneath aged trees, through the waving grass, and the blackbird and the thrush sang so sweetly above them. She felt it as they entered the house together, and she stood in a large, bright room, with pictures, and flowers, and books, a luxurious room, but also a genial one, made to live in, and which seemed to echo her husband's welcome. Mr. Templemore watched Dora's eyes as they scanned this roo...