Lisette's Venture Author:M C. Gray General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1874 Original Publisher: H.S. King Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can selec... more »t from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. LISETTE'S LOVERS. A Great deal has been said arid written in censure of London mothers, who seem to be looked upon as a species of human shark, ever waiting to swallow up any golden fish that may be floating on the shining surface of the stream of a London season. It is true that one hears of many instances of unpleasingly dexterous angling, most flagrant acts of manoeuvring to secure a rich prize in the matrimonial market, producing disgust in bystanders, and much jealousy and spite in the hearts of other intriguers similarly employed. But in the present day, when young ladies and gentlemen are allowed to choose their own mode of education -- to change about fromtutors and governesses at home to schools for half a year or so, and back again, just as the fancy pleases them, thus entirely destroying any possible authority that might be possessed by those set over them, -- in fact, in these times, when young England is allowed to assert its independence from the very cradle, depend upon it, in nine cases out of ten parents have little to do with the marriages of their sons, or of their daughters either. The matter is completely taken out of their hands, and happy and thankful must they feel, when their children choose as they would have chosen for them ; for they are now complete ciphers, where once they used to be the principal acting parties. And if the aspirations of mothers for their daughters are sometimes fraught with an undue amount of ambition, surely the disappointments, the destruction to their hopes, they are continually meeting with, demand some in...« less