"
The volume Missy chanced first to select for reading was entitled
"Airy Fairy Lilian." The very first paragraph was arresting:
Down the broad oak staircase--through the silent hall--into the
drawing-room runs Lilian, singing as she goes. The room is deserted;
through the half-closed blinds the glad sunshine is rushing, turning
to gold all on which its soft touch lingers, and rendering the
large, dull, handsome apartment almost comfortable. . .
"Broad oak staircase"--"drawing-room"--"large, dull, handsome
apartment"--oh, wonderful!
Then on to the description of the alluring heroine:
. . . the face is more than pretty, it is lovely--the fair, sweet,
childish face, framed in by its yellow hair; her great velvety eyes,
now misty through vain longing, are blue as the skies above her; her
nose is pure Greek; her forehead low, but broad, is partly shrouded
by little wandering threads of gold that every now and then break
loose from bondage, while her lashes, long and dark, curl upward
from her eyes, as though hating to conceal the beauty of the
exquisite azure within.
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