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Holmes, Mary Jane, 1825-1907

"Bessie's Fortune A Novel"

It's a horrid name, mamma says.'
"'Then why did she give it to you?' I said, and she answered with the
utmost gravity:
"'For some old auntie in America who has money; but she never sent me a
thing, nor answered papa's letter. I think she is mean, don't you?'
"I did not tell her what I thought of the old auntie, though I could not
repress a smile at her frankness, which pleased me more than
prevarication would have done.
"'Where is your papa?' I asked, and she replied:
"'At the Queen's Hotel, but it is awful expensive there, and papa says
we can't afford it much longer. But mamma says we must stay till she
finds some place to visit. There she is now, and that is Lord Hardy with
her; they are going over to the old ruins,' and she pointed to a young
woman in the distance, bedizened out in white muslin and blue ribbons,
with her yellow hair hanging down her back, and her big straw hat in her
hand instead of on her head; and she was talking and laughing and
coquetting with a short, spindle-legged chap, not much taller than
herself, and looking with his light curly hair and mustache like a
poodle-dog.


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