His Other Wife: A Novel — page 110: what you’re looking at

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

102 s -MR. CROFT’S WARD. rant of those branches of learning in which society de- mands that a young lady shall be accomplished. , But, being only sixteen, with a bright, receptive mind and ready comprehension, it promised to be no difficult task to amend the errors in Miss Hilary's early educa- tion. | What did puzzle Faith far more than foreign verbs or studies in music and drawing, was her anomalous position in the family at Lucerne. Received as she had been with distinguished consideration, assigned the best apartments in the establishment, and generally deferred to as a person of importance, she nevertheless felt conscious of a com- plete alienation from the sympathies of the master and mistress of Lucerne. They were scrupulously but coldly polite and attentive to her, though always constrained and distant. But she seemed not to wonder at this fact, seeing how utterly cold they were to each other. Mr. and Mrs. Croft seemed never to meet nor speak to each other save at the times of formal reunion in the drawing-rooms or at meals, and then only in the most ceremonious manner possible. Mr. Croft was most of the time absent at his office in the city, and when at home he appeared always absorbed and distrait, or painfully reserved. Mrs. Croft was proud, silent, haughty, and often con- temptuous toward every one about her save Faith, and to her never more than frigidly polite. The slaves evidently stood in awe of both master and mistress, «=f Eomicbooks.¢o