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Title: The Squire's Daughter
Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons

Author: Archibald Marshall

Release Date: February 25, 2010 [EBook #31381]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE SQUIRE'S DAUGHTER

_Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons_

BY ARCHIBALD MARSHALL

NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1920

Published October, 1912
by
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

TO
ANSTEY GUTHRIE

[Illustration: Archibald Marshall.]

CONTENTS

I A Court Ball

II In the Bay of Biscay

III The Clintons of Kencote

IV Clintons Young and Old

V Melbury Park

VI A Good Long Talk

VII The Rector

VIII By the Lake

IX The Question of Marriage

X Town Versus Country

XI A Wedding

XII Food and Raiment

XIII Ronald Mackenzie

XIV The Plunge

XV Bloomsbury

XVI The Pursuit

XVII The Contest

XVIII After the Storm

XIX The Whole House Upset

XX Mrs. Clinton

XXI Cicely's Return

XXII The Life

CHAPTER I

A COURT BALL

"I recollect the time," said the Squire, "when two women going to a ball
were a big enough load for any carriage. You may say what you like about
crinolines, but I've seen some very pretty women in them in my time."

There were three people in the carriage passing slowly up the Mall in
the string, with little jerks and progressions. They were the Squire
himself, Mrs. Clinton, and Cicely, and they were on their way to a Court
Ball.

The Squire, big, florid, his reddish beard touched with grey falling
over the red and gold of his Deputy-Lieutenant's uniform, sat back
comfortably beside his wife, who was dressed in pale lavender silk, with
diamonds in her smooth, grey-yellow hair. She was short and rather
plump. Her grey eyes, looking out on the violet of the night sky, the
trees, and the crowd of hilarious