Violet Lisle — page 27: what you’re looking at

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

MOTHER AND SON. 21 could see, that it was difficult for her to know how to take the startling confession which had been made to her. _ ‘But who is she, as well as what is she?” she asked, in’ a low tone. : He studied a moment, clasping his hands over his knee, and rocking slightly as he dreamily pictured Violet to himself. How should he describe her to his mother so that she should gain some faint notion of her perfection? No, there were no words adequate to the task; he would ell her who she was, and then his mother should go with him to the abbey woods and see Violet with her own eyes, as he had so often seen her. “You know the Lisles of Granthorpe?” he said to his mother. A little sigh of relief broke from Lady Darlington’s lips. The Lisles of Granthorpe had larger estates and a bigger _rent-roll than the Darlingtons even. - The estates joined, too. The two families had long been in litigation over a large and important estate, but such a union would heal any divisions, and make the future Earl of Darlington and of Granthorpe one of the most powerful in the United Kingdom. But—— _ “Ts there a daughter, Guy ?” “Qh, not of those Lisles,” said Guy, carelessly. ‘“ Vio- let-belongs to the younger branch. Very rich in blood,” he added, with his sunny laugh, “but poor in money. Fortunately that will not matter.” _ “Will not matter?” she repeated, sharply—almost angrily. | But he did not notice the tone. He was thinking of how little value money was in comparison with Violet’s wealth of purity and loveliness. “No, it will not matter, thank Heaven! Ah, Lady mother, you will so love her! I never valued our wealth so much as since I have thought.how much happiness she would derive from it. She has been reared in poverty, -mother—oh, real poverty !—but she is like the flowers ee come up through the snow—all the purer and sweeter ior it. - “*Poetical!” said Lady Darlington, with that little sneer which so often precedes the outburst of suppressed anger. Guy laughed, unconscious of the storm about to burst. **So it was, eh? Violet’s influence, mother. I am so anxious for you to meet now that it is out. I ought to have let you share my happiness before. I don’t know why * didn’t.” Gomichooksrecom —_ | -