Patricia Kemball

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1875 edition. Excerpt: ... given and received; a life wherein she grew into a loveliness of soul and body surpassing all she had yet attained; a life which gave back the nobleness it wrought and the happiness it dispensed, such as is ever found, no matter what the pattern of their flag, by those who have thus consecrated themselves to this service of humanity. In the beautiful activities of the present she wondered more than ever at the purposeless existence of Abbey Holme; its ladylike excuses for idleness in those eternal strips of needlework and endless rolls of parti-coloured knitting which filled up the hours for her aunt and Dora with such a comfortable conviction of industry; its want of depth at home or of interest abroad; its absence of all object or intention save the maintenance of the proprieties and the smoothest manner of passing time. She wondered just as much now at their material arrangements too, as she did in the beginning; and still more at herself, that she had lived through them for those long weary months. How stifling it was! Those dreadful flues which went through the house and made it all as hot as a greenhouse; those thick velvet-pile carpets and heavy curtains and closed windows and huge fires; those dull evenings when she was expected to interest herself in bezique which she could never understand, and was not allowed to read or employ her hands in such work only as she could do--and it was not fine work; those dull days; those languid, compressed, silent weeks and months! She felt she could not have lived there at all had it not been for Dora; and how kind Dora was in the beginning! Kind, yes, always; at the end quite as kind as in the beginning; even when she had ruined her doing her best to make her pain less painful! But how all...