The Project Gutenberg EBook of Vagabondia, by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Title: Vagabondia
1884

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Release Date: June 8, 2008 [EBook #25727]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VAGABONDIA ***

Produced by David Widger

VAGABONDIA

By Frances Hodgson Burnett

JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY - 1884

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

This my first novel was written several years ago, and published
(without any revision by me) first in a ladies' magazine under the name
of "Dorothea," and afterwards in book form as "Dolly." For reasons not
necessary to state here, all control over the book had passed from
my hands. It has been for some time out of print; but, having at last
obtained control of the copyright, I have made such corrections as
seemed advisable, given it the name I originally intended for it, and
now issue it through my regular publishers.

FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT.

Washington, November, 1883.

VAGABONDIA.

CHAPTER I. ~ IN WHICH WE HOLD COUNSEL.

It was a nondescript sort of a room, taking it altogether. A big, sunny
room, whose once handsome papering and corniceing had grown dingy, and
whose rich carpeting had lost its color and pile in places, and yet
asserted its superiority to its surroundings with an air of lost
grandeur in every shabby medallion. There were pictures in abundance on
the walls, and more than one of them were gems in their way, despite
the evidence all bore to being the work of amateurs. The tables were
carved elaborately, and the faded, brocaded chairs were of the order
_pouf_, and as inviting as they were disreputable in appearance; there
was manuscript music among the general litter, a guitar hung from the
wall by a tarnished blue and silver ribbon, and a violin lay on the
piano; and yet, notwithstanding the air of free-and-easy disorder, one
could hardly help recognizing a sort of vagabond comfort and luxury in
the Bohemian surroundings. It was so very evident that the owners
must enjoy life in an easy, light-hearted, though perhaps light-headed
fashion; and it was also so very evident that their light hearts and
light he