Sabina Zembra A Novel Author:William Black 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: ' Of course she has her faults,, said Janie. 'Oh, indeed,' said he (thinking himself very cunning). ' Well, now, it would be something to hear of them. As eve... more »ry one has nothing but praises for Miss Zembra, it would be quite refreshing to hear unkind things said of her.' Janie winced. That she should be thought capable, even in jest, of saying unkind things of her dearest ? Nevertheless she continued : ' Oh yes, she has faults, and plenty,' she said cheerfully. ' How could one love her if she were perfect ? Faults, oh yes. For one thing she is a little too anxious to have every one fond of her. She can,t bear that any one should be quite indifferent about her. She likes to be well thought of. I don,t know that it is exactly vanity—for it is not her appearance she thinks of—it,s herself that she wants people to like And more than that, she insists on it. If an ill- conditioned brat of a boy will have nothing to say to her, you will see her deliberately neglect the whole of the family until she has won him over in spite of himself. Or an old woman. Old women are sometimes cynical. They distrust pretty eyes. Then you should see Sabie. Oh, she is a hypocrite—an out-and-out hypocrite. But that is the one thing she cannot bear—that anybody should be quite indifferent about her., 'So far,' said he, 'Miss Zembra,s faults don,t seem to be very serious. Some people would call them virtues. I don,t think it is much against a woman—and particularly a young woman—that she should wish to be thought well of. It seems to me quite natural. And as for wishing people to be fond of her, surely that is natural too ! The strange thing to me is that she should experience any difficulty.' She knew he would come to Sabie,s defence—knew it perfectly when she began. And she thought she would r...« less