Casting of Nets

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER V CHRISTMAS was ushered in that year in Staffordshire by genuine Christmas weather. A heavy fall of snow had been succeeded by a hard frost. The great oaks in the park at Abbotsbury stood out majestically against the general whiteness around them, and the scarlet berries of the old holly-trees showed like little stains of blood on their snow-laden branches. It was nearly five o'clock, and Lady Redman was awaiting the arrival of some of her guests in the gallery at Abbotsbury. The room occupied the entire length of the facade of one of the courtyards around which the house was built. The green painted windows were uncurtained, and the light from inside the gallery shone through the stained glass, casting patches of colour on the snow beneath them. Within the room all was warmth and comfort. Three large fireplaces, in which were burning great logs of wood, mingled with blocks of Cannock Chase coal, warmed it, and the smell of the burning wood mingled pleasantly with the scent of orchids, lilies of the valley, and other flowers, which were distributed about it. Lady Redman, as she sat in a low armchair by one of the fireplaces, looked in every way a woman fitted to be the mistress of so stately a home as Abbotsbury. Apart from the beauty of her features and colouring, and the warm tints of the auburn hair clustering upon the small, high-bred-looking head, there was a certain grace and dignity about Hilda Redman which was certainly suitable to her surroundings. She had none of the spasmodic and awkward movements of the arms and legs affected by the modern English girl. The worn expression in the eyes, and the hard lines about the mouth, which make the athletic Englishwoman of two or three and twenty of today look double her age were conspicuous by the...