Sir James neither saw nor heard.
CHAPTER III
Alicia Drake--a vision of pale pink--had just appeared in the long
gallery at Tallyn, on her way to dinner. Her dress, her jewels, and all
her minor appointments were of that quality and perfection to which only
much thought and plentiful money can attain. She had not, in fact, been
romancing in that account of her afternoon which has been already
quoted. Dress was her weapon and her stock in trade; it was, she said,
necessary to her "career." And on this plea she steadily exacted in its
support a proportion of the family income which left but small pickings
for the schooling of her younger brothers and the allowances of her two
younger sisters. But so great were the indulgence and the pride of her
parents--small Devonshire land-owners living on an impoverished
estate--that Alicia's demands were conceded without a murmur. They
themselves were insignificant folk, who had, in their own opinion,
failed in life; and most of their children seemed to them to possess the
same ineffective qualities--or the same absence of qualities--as
themselves. But Alicia represented their one chance of something
brilliant and interesting, something to lift them above their neighbors
and break up the monotony of their later lives.
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