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The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 16 Volumes (16 Volume Set)
The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe in 16 Volumes - 16 Volume Set Author:Harriet Beecher Stowe 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: THE TEA ROSE Theke it stood, in its little green vase, on a light ebony stand, in the window of the drawing-room. The rich satin curtains, with their costly f... more »ringes, swept down on either side of it, and around it glittered every rare and fanciful trifle which wealth can offer to luxury ; and yet that simple rose was the fairest of them all. So pure it looked, its white leaves just touched with that delicious creamy tint peculiar to its kind; its cup so full, so perfect; its head bending as if it were sinking and melting away in its own richness — Oh, when did ever man make anything to equal the living, perfect flower ? But the sunlight that streamed through the window revealed something fairer than the rose. Reclined on an ottoman, in a deep recess, and intently engaged with a book, rested what seemed the counterpart of that so lovely flower. That cheek so pale, that fair forehead so spiritual, that countenance so full of high thought, those long, downcast lashes, and the expression of the beautiful mouth, sorrowful, yet subdued and sweet — it seemed like the picture of a dream. " Florence ! Florence ! " echoed a merry and musical voice, in a sweet, impatient tone. Turn your head, reader, and you will see a light and sparkling maiden, the very model of some little willful elf, born of mischief and motion, with a dancing eye, a foot that scarcely seems to touch the carpet, and a smile so multiplied by dimples that it seems like a thousand smiles at once. " Come, Florence, I say," said the little sprite, " put down that wise, good, and excellent volume, and descend from your cloud, and talk with a poor little mortal." The fair apparition, thus adjured, obeyed ; and, looking up, revealed just such eyes as you expected to see beneath such lids — eyes deep, pathetic, and ri...« less