Project Gutenberg's The Daughters of a Genius, by Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

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Title: The Daughters of a Genius

Author: Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

Illustrator: John Menzies

Release Date: June 20, 2010 [EBook #32933]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Daughters of a Genius, by Mrs George de Horne Vaizey.

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THE DAUGHTERS OF A GENIUS, BY MRS GEORGE DE HORNE VAIZEY.

CHAPTER ONE.

UNKNOWN COUSINS.

"What is your letter, my dear? You seem annoyed. _No_ bad news, I
hope," said the master of Chedworth Manor, looking across the table to
where his wife eat behind the urn, frowning over the sheet which she
held in her hand. She was a handsome, well-preserved woman, with
aquiline features, thin lips, and eyes of a pale, indefinite blue. She
looked up as he spoke, then threw down the letter with a sigh of
impatience.

"Oh, bad news, of course! When did we ever return from a holiday
without finding something of the sort awaiting us? It's from Stephen
Charrington. He says he would have written before, but heard that we
were abroad, and did not know where to direct. Edgar is dead. He died
a fortnight ago, and the funeral was on Friday week. I never knew a man
who married improvidently and had a huge family who did _not_ die before
he reached middle age. It seems a judgment on them; and here is another
instance. Forty-nine his last birthday! He ought to have lived for
another twenty years at least."

Mrs Loftus spoke with an air of injury which seemed to imply that the
deceased gentleman had died out of pure perversity, and her husband
knitted his brows in disapproving fashion. Even after twenty-five years
of married life his wife's heartless selfishness could give him a twinge
of shocked surprise when, as now, it was obtrusively displayed. He
himself made no claims to philanthropy, but one expected some natural
feeling from a woman; and with all his fault