A NOBLE PURPOSE NOBLY WON. An old, old Story. BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARY POWELL.” A. Dannis IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON: ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE AND CO., 25. PATERNOSTER ROW 1862 [The Author reserves the right of Translation.] A NOBLE PURPOSE NOBLY WON. W CHAPTER I. HEN poet, dramatist, painter, and sculptor have laboured their best, there remains no excuse for retouching their work, unless we can add traits which bring us nearer to truth. I can honestly say this has been my conscientious aim, while pursuing with continually increasing interest a task on which I entered with animation and zeal. This zeal has carried me, with scarcely any help, through several hundred pages of dog-Latin,-easier, perhaps, than if it were classical, to one who never learnt the language. But I could pick out what I wanted best for myself: a word, a phrase sometimes had a light for me only. On the other hand, I have sometimes advisedly omitted things that I knew would be popular, as carrying a certain dash with them. Some will thank me, some will not; but, either way, -"such is the custom of Branksome Hall." For once, I fight under the fleur-de-lis, and I shall verify a few details as I proceed. An old tree on a hillock; a young girl standing under it. That is a subject simple enough to require no great extent of canvas. A young girl, brown and ruddy; her clothing scant and of the coarsest, but whole, and neat, and clean. She wears a cherry-coloured petticoat, blue woollen hose, and sabots. Her eyes are dark brown, kindly, and lustrous, like those of a deer or a kid; her lips cherry-red, her hands and arms well formed, but inured to labour r; |