THE SORCERESS.
THE SORCERESS.
A Novel.
BY
M R S. O L I P H A N T,
AUTHOR OF
“THE CHRONICLES OF CARLINGFORD,”
“THE CUCKOO IN THE NEST,”
ETC., ETC.
IN THREE VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
F. V. WHITE & Co.,
31, SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND, W.C.
1893.
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
PRINTED BY
TILLOTSON AND SON, BOLTON,
LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BERLIN.
| CONTENTS: CHAPTER I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII., XIII., XIV., XV., XVI. |
THE SORCERESS.
CHAPTER I.
It was the most exciting event which had ever occurred in the family,and everything was affected by it.
Imagine to yourselves such a young family, all in the very heyday oflife, parents and children alike. It is true that Mrs. Kingsward wassomething of an invalid, but nobody believed that her illness wasanything very serious, only a reason why she should be taken abroad, toone place after another, to the great enjoyment of the girls, who werenever so happy as when they were travelling and gaining, as they said,experience of life. She was not yet forty, while Charlie was twenty-oneand Bee nineteen, so that virtually they were all of the same age, so tospeak, and enjoyed everything together—mamma by no means put aside intothe ranks of the dowagers, but going everywhere and doing everythingjust like the rest, and as much admired as anyone.
To be sure she had not been able to walk about so much this time, andhad not danced once, except a single turn with Charlie, which brought ona palpitation, so that she declared with a laugh that her dancing dayswere over. Her dancing days over! Considering how fond she had alwaysbeen of dancing, the three young people laughed over this, and did nottake the least alarm. Mamma had always been the ringleader ineverything, even in the romps with the little ones at home. For you mustnot think that these three were all of the family by any means.
Bee and Betty were the eldest of I can’t at this moment tell how many,who were safe in the big nursery at Kingswarden under the charge (verypartial) of papa, and the strict and steady rule of nurse, who was apersonage of high authority in the house. Papa had but lately left “theelder ones,” as he called them, including his pretty wife—and