An author's story and other tales Author:Emily Foster 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: NOT AS WE SEEM. |NE of the most important places on the south coast is Southampton, anciently called Hamptune. Independently of its being one of the great sta... more »tions for arrival and departure to most parts of the world, it possesses a fine town, containing many handsome public buildings and excellent shops ; while many places of interest, such as Netley Abbey, the Isle of Wight, the New Forest, etc., are in its neighbourhood. Situated between busy, populous Southampton and the quiet village of Shirley there stood, several years ago, a pleasant and commodious house, then known as the residence of a Mr. Samuel Lewis. He was a man between fifty and sixty years of age. A widower,with two daughters, of whom more anon, possessed of a tolerable personal appearance, and occupying a comfortable position in society. Mr. Lewis was a secretary to a large and flourishing institution, he also held some other minor appointment, and was, moreover, believed to possess considerable private property ; and, as he dwelt in a good and well-appointed house, as he and his daughters were always well dressed, and as he subscribed somewhat largely to many of the most prominent charities in the neighbourhood, this belief appeared only reasonable. On this account, and perhaps because he was very particular in his religious observances, he had been chosen as churchwarden, which post he had satisfactorily filled for the past few years. But it is now time we spoke of his daughters. Jane and Maud Lewis, aged respectively eighteen and twenty, had, owing to their father being left a widower when they were quite young, been brought up by an aunt , away from their father's house, only seeing him occasionally ; but when Jane was eighteen, and her sister Maud nearly sixteen, they had, in consequence of the death...« less