My Pretty Maid; or, Liane LesterMiller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.
Philosophy
My Pretty Maid; or, Liane Lester
Miller, Alex. McVeigh, Mrs.
Dime novels; Foundlings -- Fiction; Identity -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
"Jesse Devereaux! Was he handsome as a picture, with big, rolling,
black eyes? Yes? Why, my pretty dear, you must not set your heart on
him. He is one of the young millionaires up on Commonwealth Avenue, the
swellest young man in Boston. He would never stoop to a poor working
girl."
She saw the beautiful color fade from the girl's rosy cheek, and her
bosom heaved with emotion as she faltered:
"He was very kind to me at Stonecliff!"
Mrs. Brinkley knew the world so well that she took instant alarm,
exclaiming warningly:
"Don't you set any store by his kindness, child. No good comes of rich
young men showing attentions to pretty working girls. If you have
followed him here through a fancy for his handsome face, then you had
better go home to-night."
Eagerly, blushingly, Liane disclaimed such a purpose, saying granny had
brought her to see a relative.
"I--I only thought I might see his face in some of the crowded
streets," she faltered.
"It is better for you never to see his face again, for it's plain to be
seen he has stolen your heart," chided the widow. "Come, I'll show you
his grand home, and then you may understand better how much he is above
you, and how useless it is to hope to catch him."
Liane's cheeks burned at the chidings of the good woman, and tears
leaped to her eyes, but she did not refuse the proffer of seeing
Devereaux's home. She thought eagerly:
"I might see him at the window, or perhaps coming down the steps into
the street. Then, if he should come and speak to me joyfully, as he did
that night at the beauty contest, I believe even this good, anxious
woman could see that he loves me."
She walked along happily by Mrs. Brinkley's side, carrying the jaunty
brown jacket on her arm, as Lizzie had advised, for the sun's rays were
warm, and she was weary from her sightseeing. The scarlet silk waist
looked very gay, but if she had dreamed of the dreadful letter that had
told Devereaux she was coming to Boston to buy a red silk gown, she
would have torn it off and trampled it beneath her feet.
Her beautiful eyes sparkled with pleasure at sight of the splendid
homes of Boston's wealthy class, and she could not help exclaiming:
"I am not envious, but I would like to be rich and live in one of these
palaces."
"That you can never do, child, so don't think about it any more, as
I tell Lizzie, when she gets to sighing for riches," rejoined the
prudent matron. "Look, now, at that grand house we're coming to; Mr.
Devereaux lives there with his old father and his young married sister,
the proudest beauty in Boston. You see, I read all about them in the
society columns, and--oh!"
She paused with a stifled shriek, for the great front door of the grand
mansion had indeed opened, as Liane secretly prayed it would, and a man
came down the steps--Jesse Devereaux himself!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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