Beyond even the natural ecstasy of first love,
the natural triumph of a brilliant engagement, what visions of
untold splendor danced hourly, day and night, before her dazzled
eyes! What masques of magnificence! county balls, garden parties!
It was heaven to Dolly. She was going to be grander than her
grandest daydream.
Walter took her across one afternoon to Combe Mary, and introduced
her in due form to his mother and his step-father, who found the
pink-and-white girl "so very young," but saw no other grave fault
in her. He even escorted her over the ancestral home of the
masters of Combe Mary, in which they were both to live, and which
the young squire had left vacant of set purpose till he found a
wife to his mind to fill it. 'Twas the ideal crystallized. Rooks
cawed from the high elms; ivy clambered to the gables; the tower of
the village church closed the vista through the avenue. The cup of
Dolly's happiness was full to the brim. She was to dwell in a
manor-house with livery servants of her own, and to dress for
dinner every night of her existence.
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