Beta Book

At Mr. Ralph Ashley's bow, she raised her head quickly; and her
startled look showed plainly she had not been conscious of the
presence of Fanny, or the young man on the portico.
Redbud returned the profound bow of Fanny's cavalier with a delightful
little curtsey, and would have retired into the house again. But this
Miss Fanny, for reasons best known to herself, was determined to
prevent--reasons which a close observer might have possibly guessed,
after looking at her blushing cheeks and timid, uneasy eyes. For
everybody knows that if there is anything more distasteful and
embarrassing to very young ladies than a failure on the part of
gallants to recognise their claims to attention, that other more
embarrassing circumstance is a too large _quantum_ of the pleasing
incense. It is not the present writer, however, who will go so far
as to say that their usual habit of running _away_ from the admirer
should be taken, as in other feminine manoeuvres, by contraries.
So Fanny duly introduced Mr.


Pages:
199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223