Wives and Daughters; An Every-Day Story
Average rating |
|
4 out of 5
|
Based on 48 Ratings and 48 Reviews |
Book Description
General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1890 Original Publisher: Smith, Elder Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Family Life Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Social Science / Social Classes Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or miss...
MoreGeneral Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1890 Original Publisher: Smith, Elder Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Fiction / Family Life Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Social Science / Social Classes 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 Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER XXVI. A CHARITY BALL. At the present time there are few people at a public ball besides the dancers and their chaperonea, or relations in some degreo interested in them. But in the days when Molly and Cynthia were young -- before railroads were, and before their consequences, the excursion-trains, which take every one up to London now-a- days, there to see their fill of gay crowds and fine dresses -- to go to an annual charity-ball, even though all thought of dancing had passed by years ago, and without any of the responsibilities of a chaperone, was a very allowable and favourite piece of dissipation to all the kindly old maids who thronged the country towns of Eugland. They aired their old lace and their best dresses; they saw the aristocratic magnates of the country side; they gossipped with their coevals, aud speculated on the romances of the young around them in a curious yet friendly spirit. The Miss Brownings would have thought themselves sadly defrauded of the gayest event of the year, if anything had prevented their attending the charity ball, and Miss Browning would have been indignant, Miss Phccbo aggrieved, had they not been asked to Ashcombe and Coreham, by friends at each place, who had, like them, gone through the dancing-stage of life some five-and-twenty years before, but who liked still to haunt the scenes of their former enjoyment, and see a younger generation dance on "re...
You must be a member of JacketFlap to add a video to this page. Please
Log In or
Register.
View Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell's profile