Her Faithful Knight — page 128: what you’re looking at

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

/ 124 Her First Rehearsal. — herself had surmised, Dorothy had no trace of the his- trionic temperament. Although possessed of exception- ally deep feeling and capable of going to extreme lengths in the direction of either loving or hating, she was neither amorous nor expansive. As a rule,the more she felt the less she was likely to discourse on the subject, and the struggle for life of the past three years had strengthened and confirmed her in a habit of self-repression which, per- haps, had not been originally a part of her nature. Until this point of her life she had had, as she herself phrased it, “no time for love affairs,” and the feeling of liking and interest with which Aylmer Read had inspired her was, so far, the nearest approach to sentiment that had touched her heart. The strain of keeping the little household at Lockhart Cottages together, the constant anxiety as to whether the rent and bills would be met, the incessant work, and the feeling of grave responsibility which had devolved upon her at little more than sixteen years of age, had, to all appearance, changed a high-spirited, impulsive schoolgirl into a thoughtful, serious and self-relying woman. Yet in many ways Mr. Darcy’s leading lady was as guilelessly ignorant of the world asa child. All chance of social pleasures, flirtations, dances and diversions had been lost to the sisters before they had reached the age for properly enjoying them, and alike by their temperaments and education, they had been debarred from the transient love affairs w 2h chance acquaintances which are the solace of girls in a Iu. ** “tation of life. - To the ill-written “nd rhapsodical part of Zara Carewe, therefore, Miss Knigat brought inexperience of the pas- sion of love, a keen sense of the ridiculous, a distaste for acting, a preoccupied mind, and a total ignorance of the requirements of the stage. Played by an actress of gen- ius, the absurdities of the part might have disappeared in the opportunities it afforded an emotional artiste of “let- EOMmIGdoOOo <S (E)