Antony Author:Masterman 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: and looked forth with a pathetic sigh and a languid inclination of the head, along the street, towards the turnpike road. Her elbow was leant upon the window-sil... more »l, and her head bent upon her hand. Miss Donought looked melancholy and sentimental. But for whom did she watch? For whose sake had she sat all that morning and the whole of the previous day beside that window, the short muslin blind tucked up on one side, so as not to impede her view, and she looking up from the yellow and green pocket-handkerchief she was hemming, whenever an individual of any description appeared upon the dusty road ? Whom had she hoped there to recognise, but hoped in vain ? For whose eyes had she arranged those drooping curls, with all the grace that paper and pincers could impart to them ? That a change has come over the spirit of Jemima Donought's dream, there can be no doubt. To use the favourite expression of our friend, Mrs. Evans, " Who would have thought it!" that the austere commander-in-chief of the nine brethren and of the poor pupil, could ever have worn, as now, that aspect of soft and languid sentimentality; that that heart, formerly as hard as cold sealing-wax, could have become warmed by any tender emotion, into a state capable of receiving impression ? See, she now rises from her seat, lets fall the half- hemmed pocket-handkerchief, hastens to the glass, takes one more Narcissean glance, and leaves the chapter{Section 4room; she rushes down stairs, knocks down two children who had impeded her progress in the passage, and hurries to the front door. She opens it— yes, condescends with her own genteel hands to open it—and stands ready to welcome him who approaches. And lo! it is Antony Nayton who turns into the gravel road—passes along by the flower borders, where the daffodil...« less