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The Roman Students: Or, On the Wings of the Morning
The Roman Students Or On the Wings of the Morning Author:Deborah Alcock 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. MOTHER AND SON. jjOU are late to-night, Raymond," said the Lady Erminia Chalcon- dyles, raising her head as Raymond entered. Had a quiet,... more » prosperous life been her portion, she might still have looked young ; as it was, her dark hair was streaked with grey and her features were worn and wasted. She had been a beautiful girl, and was now a matron of noble presence, grave and stately. Gifted with great courage and strong passions, as well as with intense affections, her heart and her will had survived the shipwreck that robbed her of home, of kindred, and of friends. As themariner clings to the floating spar, his last hope, so she clung to the child that had been left to her. In his young life she lived again; for him she was still enterprising, sanguine, ambitious; and, if all the truth must be told, for him she could even be worldly and selfish, she could plot and manage, as well as dare and suffer. " I have had a fray with some of the Nicoloti," said Eaymond; and he eagerly poured out the whole story, making little of the hurts he had received and much of the help rendered by his schoolfellow, with a glowing panegyric upon whom he wound up the tale. The Grecian widow was not a modern fine lady, to shudder at hearing her boy had been exchanging blows, or to shrink from seeing a crimson stain or two upon his dainty linen. She wished him bold and brave, as apt at play of sword and buckler as at grammar and rhetoric. So she only said, when he had finished, " I hold the banker Benedetto in high esteem, and have much cause to begrateful to him. I am glad you like his son. Still, I think your friendship, your intimacy, might be placed rather higher with advantage. At your academy there are the Mocenigi, the Loredani, the two Foscari, grand-nephews of the Dog...« less