Her Faithful Knight — page 276: what you’re looking at

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

272 Aylmer’s Household. that! Some women are much nicer than men, and some men are perfectly horrid, don’t you think so? So fickle, and never knowing their own minds two minutes to- gether. But now, if you are warmer, you must come up- stairs and take your hat and coat off. Dinner will be ready at seven and it is nearly that now. We waited din- ner for Aylmer; generally we have -it at a quarter to seven, but mamma declared she couldn’t eat a thing unless we had news of Aylmer. I wonder what’s become of him? I suppose he’s gone to try and persuade her to come down.” Little persuasion was necessary. Curiosity to see Ayl- mer’s invited guest drove away Mrs. Read’s headache, and soon as the dinner gong sounded Dorothy descended from the pretty little room assigned to her—all white enameling and brightly flowered chintz—to the dining room, to which old oakchairs and mantelpiece “fitments,” blue and white tiles and china, and many oil paintings, gave a touch of stateliness, and found Rosa’s mother in- stalled at the head of the table. Aylmer’s late uncle had married his wife Harriet partly because she was an excellent, motherly body and a good manager, and chiefly because she was very much in love with him, and a pretty girl had just jilted him. Most fortunately for Rosa, she inherited her father’s good looks, for Mrs. Read was more than usually plain, and her constant habit of weeping did not tend to improve her appearance. Clad in widow’s weeds, of a dull, brickdust complexion, indefinite features, and a generally limp, red-eyed and red- nosed appearance, Mrs. Read showed in her manner of greeting Dorothy a womanly kindness which touched the latter deeply and inclined her to overlook her unattractive exterior. GComichbookssco