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The bosom friend, by the author of 'The gambler's wife'.
The bosom friend by the author of 'The gambler's wife' Author:Elizabeth Caroline Grey 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: CHAPTER IV. " As jars the hinge, what sullen echoes call! Oh haste 1 unfold the hospitable hall! The storied arras, source of fond delight, With old achie... more »vment charms the wilder'd sight, And still with Heraldry's rich hues imprest, On the dim window glows the pictured crest." Rogers. Mrs. Gordon, assisted by Mr. Hamilton, was occupied for the most part of that day, in settling all the details connected with the establishment, which she was about to take under her superintendence, and then, escorted by theyoung people, she was taken the round of the old mansion, through its enormous chambers, vast as Horace Walpole describes those which the nobility of ancient times delighted in, but did not know how to furnish. Through the picture gallery—the armoury —the chapel—all those obscure passages—and even the very nooks and dusky apartments which such ancient houses generally contain, was Mrs. Gordon paraded, the Baroness and Nice walking demurely by her side, while the merry voices of Claud and Francesca echoed around the silent place. The library was the only one of the larger apartments which was to be open for the constant use of the family, as both for comfort, and on account of the limited establishment that was allowed to the Baroness during her minority, it was expedient that the most compact part of the mansion should be inhabited. The apartments, therefore, for their immediate occupation, consisted of the bed-roomand private sitting-room of Mrs-Gordon—those of the girls, a small dining-room, and the large apartment denominated by courtesy the school-room, but which had become more properly the play-room of Francesca, since the governess, who having, for a few years, superintended the education of the Baroness departed, finding the place too dull for endura...« less