Gratia's Trials — page 95: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

86 GRATIA'S TRIALS. ‘Shall I stay and sing you to sleep before I go, darling?” whispered Gratia. ‘‘I would just as svon.” ‘Vou had a great deal better,” said Alberta, catching at the meaning of the whispered words, and eager to get a chance to enter the ball-room without her brother’s adopted child.” ‘‘Indeed, you shall not!” cried Ida. ‘‘I want to see you in the ball-room.” : At this moment Robert Falconer sauntered into the room in faultless evening dress. «Almost ready, girls?” he said. ‘* Upon my word”—with an admiring glance at Gratia—‘‘ that’s a dused pretty dress of yours, Gratia. Why don’t you ever pick out such a pretty color as that, Bertie ?” Ida burst out laughing. ‘‘It’s Aunt Alberta’s dress,” she cried, ‘‘only she couldn't wear it because it was too tight, and so Gratia exchanged with her.” ‘“‘Very gocd-natured of Gratia, I’m sure,” said Robert, _ patronizingly.- ‘‘She’s made a good thing by the exchange, I’m sure. ‘‘Youll give me the first waltz, won’t you, Gratia ?” Gratia smiled and colored, till she looked more like a rose than ever. ‘“T do not know how to waltz,” said she. ‘The first quadrille, then. Come, is it a bargain ?” As they crossed the threshold of the brilliant ball-room, Gratia’s memory went back to the moonlight evening, scarcely six weeks since, when she and little Ida had looked in at the clittering scene, as if it were a pageant in which she never could hope to participate. Now how changed was everything! With Gratia Kempfield, every faculty was sharpened by the peculiarity of the circumtances which surrounded her. She knew every advantage and disadvantage with which she was encompassed. When she had surveyed herself in the mirror that evening, she had been fully aware of her own rare, delicate beauty, and she \ : comicbooks:com