E-text prepared by MWS, Martin Pettit, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (https://archive.org) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/missmeredith00levy MISS MEREDITH. by AMY LEVY, Author of "A Minor Poet," "Reuben Sachs," etc. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. MDCCCLXXXIX. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE A FAMILY OF FOUR 7 CHAPTER II. A GREAT EVENT 17 CHAPTER III. NEW AND STRANGE EXPERIENCES 27 CHAPTER IV. THE NEW GOVERNESS AND HER PUPIL 39 CHAPTER V. MAKING FRIENDS 45 CHAPTER VI. COSTANZA MARCHETTI 52 CHAPTER VII. THE HOME-COMING OF THE REBEL 61 CHAPTER VIII. AN ITALIAN BALL 70 CHAPTER IX. "WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME?" 84 CHAPTER X. "AS GOOD AS GOLD" 89 CHAPTER XI. "WILL YOU MAKE ME VERY HAPPY?" 98 CHAPTER XII. THE BREAKING OF THE STORM 104 CHAPTER XIII. A SKILFUL DIPLOMATIST 110 CHAPTER XIV. RELEASED FROM HER VOW 117 CHAPTER I. A FAMILY OF FOUR. It was about a week after Christmas, and we--my mother, my two sisters, and myself--were sitting, as usual, in the parlour of the little house at Islington. Tea was over, and Jenny had possession of the table, where she was engaged in making a watercolour sketch of still life by the light of the lamp, whose rays fell effectively on her bent head with its aureole of Titian-coloured hair--the delight of the Slade school--and on her round, earnest young face as she lifted it from time to time in contemplation of her subject. My mother had drawn her chair close to the fire, for the night was very cold, and the fitful crimson beams played about her worn, serene, and gentle face, under its widow's cap, as she bent over the sewing in her hands. A hard fight with fortune had been my mother's from the day when, a girl of eighteen, she had left a comfortable home to marry my father for love. Poverty and sickness--those two redoubtable dragons--had stood ever in the path. Now, even the love which had been by her side for so many years, and helped to comfort them, had vanished into the unknown. But I do not think she was unhappy. The crown of a woman's life was hers; her children rose up and called her blest.