Search -
Cecil's tryst, by the author of 'Lost sir Massingberd'.
Cecil's tryst by the author of 'Lost sir Massingberd' Author:James Payn Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ACROSS THE WAY. Nature, as I have said, had cast my twin cousins, with the exception of sex, in the same mould. They were as like as peas— dri... more »ed peas, for their swarthiness had that withered and yellow look which so often belongs to the Asiatic. Their voices were so similar, that it was impossible for the ear alone to decide who spoke; and even their handwritings defied the eye to discern that of the brother from that of the sister. Their mutual affection was, moreover, such, that they loved one another as themselves, and this bond united them more closely than the natural ligament that bound together the Siamese twins. And yet, curiouslyenough, we soon discovered that their dispositions were as opposite as the poles. Cecil's nature was impulsive, generous, and candid; that of his sister, secretive, proud, and unconciliatory. Even Aunt Ben, with whom (though she had her prejudices) no human being had ever yet contrived to quarrel, confessed that she could not ' get on' with Cousin Jane. Kindness had no power to impress her, and of course only kindness was tried. At nineteen, she resembled one of those cast-iron spinsters of fifty, who regard even children with a stony stare, and reserve their affections for a cat or a dog, and when they die, leave all their money to forward distant missionary enterprise. It was touching to observe the efforts made by her brother to mitigate (for her own sake, for she was never harsh to him) the repulsive harshness of her manner, to bring warmth into her cold looks, and when all was to no purpose, to excuse her failings (as he tenderly imagined them)to others; her health had suffered, he said, from the change of climate; but we never knew her to ail. Though the faces of my cousins were duplicates, the expression which their re...« less