The Earl's Daughter Author:Elizabeth Missing Sewell General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1878 Original Publisher: E.P. Dutton and Co. Subjects: English fiction 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 ... more »Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER VI. IF the first waking to a sense of sorrow is bitter almost beyond any other moment of suffering, so the first dawning of happiness, at least upon the young, is bright beyond the power of description. Blanche dreamt that she was in the old manor-house of St Ebbe's, grieving over a letter from her father, which, as had so often been the case, gave her no prospect of seeing him. She opened her eyes, and the sun was shining into a spacious, gorgeously-furnished chamber, fitted rather it might seem for the palace of a queen than for her own simple tastes. For an instant, she scarcely understood the reality of her senses ; but, as she hastily rose and gazed from the window, a full consciousness of her happiness came over her. There were the old gray castle walls, the silvery stream, the woods and hills, now bathed in morning light, and the distant mountain-peak wreathed with a vapoury mist, -- all which she had beheld the previous evening, and which she felt must be for ever associated with the thought of her father's love. It was then very early, but Blanche did not consider the hour, and had no remembrance of the preceding day's exertion ; and, long before the earl had left his room, she was wandering through the garden and the park, exploring overgrown paths, and mountain hillocks, to gain a clearer idea of the beauties of her new home. Lord Rutherford gently found fault with her, when she appeared at breakfast, for having given herself so much unnecessary fatigue; but when Blanche gaily declared that she did not feel it, and t...« less