Hagar Author:Alice Cary 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 III. Thi iron tongne of midnight bath told twelve. Shakspkahk. The helpless look of blooming infancy. Bnunr. Deuth liea on her like an unt... more »imely froat Upon tbe sweetest flower of all the field. Shautuu. Agreeably to his suggestion, Frederick Wurth went to bed; and if in his heart there were any uneasy sensations, they were soon lulled into quiet. The rain beat against the windows, and the wind dashed itself in stormy gusts against the roof, but happily the snug warm chamber was very different from the outer world, of which the fretful turbulence, as he listened, became a lullaby that soothed him into sleep. Against the windows of a lofty chamber, not many miles away, the same storm was beating, but the heavy sweep of the wind was broken by the contiguity of massive walls, so that it was in baffled and subdued moanings rather than in tempestuousthreats that it sounded above the roof. The shutters were closed round, to soften as much as might be the tumult of the elements, and the lamp was so .shaded that its light scarcely penetrated the gorgeous folds of the curtains, that swept from glittering and elaborate cornices, against the roses and blue bells which were sunken in the soft costly carpet, as in a fleece. The profusion of pictures, and sculptures, illustrating schools of contemporary art—luxurious chairs, divans, and ottomans, of daintily carved rose-wood, and cushioned with crimson velvet— the bed's canopy of azure and gold, and heavily sweeping silken draperies—all reflected in ample mirrors that reached from the floor to the ceiling, indicated the presence of wealth, and the most unhesitating liberality in its use. Before the glowing anthracite—guarded by statues, of Parian whiteness, whose extended hands were locked above the generous...« less