Not without Thorns By Mrs Molesworth Published by Tinsley Brothers, 18 Catherine Street, Strand, London. This edition dated 1873. VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ONE. SWEET SEVENTEEN. There a girl comes with brown locks curl'd, My friend and we talk face to face; Crying, "Oh, what a beautiful world!" Crying, "Oh, what a happy place!" _The Bird_. La danse au piano est ou tres-charmante ou tres-ennuyeuse, selon le sort. A foggy evening in early December. Fogs are quick to gather and slow to disperse in the heavily laden air surrounding an assemblage of tall chimneys; and the manufacturing town of Wareborough, low-lying and flat, seemed to have a special attraction for them. Unprepossessing at its best, Wareborough was peculiarly so at this season and in such weather; it would, indeed, have been difficult to choose a day on which it could have less favourably impressed a stranger than the one just drawing drearily to a close. There was a good deal of confusion in the streets, for the fog greatly impeded the traffic. "What a place! How can human beings be found willing to spend their lives here?" thought to himself, with a shudder at the bare idea, a young man seated in a rattling Wareborough fly, whose driver, notwithstanding constantly recurring risk of collision, was doing his best to keep his tired horse up to its usual speed. "Where in the world is the fellow taking me to?" was his next reflection. "It seems to me I have been hours in this wretched shandry-dan." Just as he was about putting his head out of the window to shout inquiries or directions to the driver, the fly stopped. The gentleman jumped out, then stood still, bewildered. "Where is the house?" he exclaimed. "Is this Barnwood Terrace? I see no houses at all." "There's a gate, sir, just by where you're standing," replied the man. "You've some little way to walk up the path. Can't drive up to the door. There's three houses together, and Mr Dalrymple's is the middle one. I'll run up to the door and ring, sir." He was preparing to descend, but the young man stopped him. "Never mind, stay where you are, I'll find my way. Come for me about eleven or half-past. You stand near our place, don't you? Yes. All right then."