Forging the Fetters And Other Stories Author:Mrs. Alexander General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1887 Original Publisher: Henry Holt and co. Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missi... more »ng text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: MRS. VEREKER'S COURIER MAID. CHAPTER I. A Bright, warm July morning ; a wide footway between a wall and high palings, over which branches of forest trees extended the gracious shelter of their leafy wealth, the distant roar of Kensington on the one side, and Netting Hill on the other ; a scent of mown grass on the left hand, and of mignonnette from the gardens beyond the wall on the right: this is the opening scene of our little drama. ' Our heroine is discovered walking slowly up the lane, a slight girl about middle height, in mourning ; a black straw hat trimmed with crape shaded her face, making an extremely fair complexion look still fairer ; a pair of soft laughing eyes, of no particular color, yet which looked dark compared with the red gold tinge of her gently-waved hair ; a neat, ladylike figure, moving with ease and grace. Young ladies do not usually soliloquize, but the author of her being knows of course what this one is thinking about. Nothing very abstruse, nothing sentimental, no conscientious introspections, nor, I regret to say, noble aspirations toward a higher life. She was saying toherself " what a quantity of money it costs to buy respectable clothes ! but how delightful it is to have them ! I do hope Kitty will try and take care of hers, poor dear ! How proud she is of being as well-dressed as the rest! It is awfully depressing to be shabby. How deliciously the grass smells ! I should like to go to the country and take Kitty, bu...« less