The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Manifest Destiny, by Julia Magruder

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Title: A Manifest Destiny

Author: Julia Magruder

Release Date: November 13, 2009 [EBook #30464]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A MANIFEST DESTINY ***

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A Manifest Destiny

BY

JULIA MAGRUDER
AUTHOR OF "A MAGNIFICENT PLEBEIAN"

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK AND LONDON
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
1900

Copyright, 1900, by JULIA MAGRUDER.

_All rights reserved._

[Illustration: Page 16
"BETTINA THREW BACK HER VEIL"]

ILLUSTRATIONS

"BETTINA THREW BACK HER VEIL" _Frontispiece_

SHE SANK BACK IN HER CHAIR _Facing p._ 34

"'AND WHO IS THIS HANDSOME BOY?'" " 60

"'THE MONEY WAS PARTLY MY OWN'" " 100

"THE VERY SPIRIT OF WIDOWHOOD" " 168

"'TRULY, MY CHILD, IT IS A WRETCHED STORY'" " 190

A MANIFEST DESTINY

CHAPTER I

Bettina Mowbray, walking the deck of the ocean steamer bound for
England, was aware that she was observed with interest by a great
many pairs of eyes. Certainly the possessors of these eyes were not
more interested in her than she was in the interpretation of their
glances. It was, indeed, of the first importance to her to know that
she was being especially noticed by the men and women of the world,
who in large part made up the passenger list, since her beauty was
her one endowment for the position in the great world which all her
life she had intended and expected to occupy. She was anxious,
therefore, to know whether the personal appearance which had been
rated so high in the obscure places hitherto known to her would or
would not hold its own when she got out into life, as it were.

Therefore, as Miss Mowbray paced the deck, at the side of the erect
elderly woman who had been her nurse and