The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lothair, by Benjamin Disraeli

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Title: Lothair

Author: Benjamin Disraeli

Release Date: April, 2005 [EBook #7835]
Posting Date: July 27, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOTHAIR ***

Produced by K. Kay Shearin

LOTHAIR

By Benjamin Disraeli

CHAPTER 1

"I remember him a little boy," said the duchess, "a pretty little boy,
but very shy. His mother brought him to us one day. She was a dear
friend of mine; you know she was one of my bridesmaids?"

"And you have never seen him since, mamma?" inquired a married daughter,
who looked like the younger sister of her mother.

"Never; he was an orphan shortly after; I have often reproached myself,
but it is so difficult to see boys. Then, he never went to school, but
was brought up in the Highlands with a rather savage uncle; and if he
and Bertram had not become friends at Christchurch, I do not well see
how we ever could have known him."

These remarks were made in the morning-room of Brentham, where the
mistress of the mansion sat surrounded by her daughters, all occupied
with various works. One knitted a purse, another adorned a slipper a
third emblazoned a page. Beautiful forms in counsel leaned over frames
embroidery, while two fair sisters more remote occasionally burst into
melody as they tried the passages of a new air, which had been dedicated
to them in the manuscript of some devoted friend.

The duchess, one of the greatest heiresses of Britain, singularly
beautify and gifted with native grace, had married in her teens one of
the wealthiest and most powerful of our nobles, and scarcely order than
herself. Her husband was as distinguished for his appearance and his
manners as his bride, and those who speculate on race were interested
in watching the development of their progeny, who in form and color, and
voice, and manner, and mind, were a reproduction of their parents,
who seemed only the elder brother and sister of a gifted circle. The
daughters with one exception came first, and all met the same fate.
After seventeen years of a delicious home they were presented, and
immediately