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THE PRICE OF LOVE PDF

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THE PRICE OF LOVE - NOVELS BY THE SAME AUTHOR FROM THE NORTH WHOM GOD HATH JOINED BURIED’ ALIVE THE bp May WIVES TALES ELEN aad THE HIGH HAND THE LION'S SHARE LI THESE TWAIN _ THE ROLL-CALL THE STRANGE VANGUARD ACCIDENT LILIAN RICEYMAN SEEPS . LORD RAIN‘ IMPERIAL PALACE TERESA OF WATLING STREET THE —y PRICE OF LOVE By ARNOLD BENNETT WARD, LOCK & CO: LIMITED. LONDON AND MELBOURNE es BEN | PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY PURNELL AND SOWS PAULTOMN (SOMERSET) AND LONDOK THE PRICE OF LC). CHAPTER I MONEY IN THE HOUSE I 'N the evening dimness of old Mrs. Maldon’s sitting-room I stood the youthful virgin, Rachel Louisa Fleckring, - The prominent fact about her appearance was that she wore an apron. Not one of those white, waist-tied aprons, with or without bibs, worn proudly, uncomprom- isingly, by a previous generation of unaspiring housewives and housegirls! But an immense blue pinafore-apron, covering the whole front of the figure except the head, hands, and toes. Its virtues were that it fully protected the most fragile frock against all the perils of the kitchen ; and that it could be slipped on or off in one second, without any manipulation of tapes, pins, or buttons and button- holes—for it had no fastenings of any sort and merely yawned behind. In one second’the drudge could be trans- formed into the elegant infanta of boudoirs, and wice versa. To suit the coquetry of the age the pinafore was enriched with certain flouncings, which, however, only intensified its unshapen ugliness, . an be rey On a plain, middleaged"“woman such 4 pinafore. would have been intolerable to the sensitive eye. But on Y it simply had a pighant and perverse air, because she was young, with the mcomparable, the unique charm of comely adolescence ; it simply excited the imagination to conceive the exquisite treasures of contour and tint and texture which it veiled. Do not infer that Rachel was a coquette. Although. comely, she was homely—a “downright” girl, scorning and hating all: manner of pretentiousness. She

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