Shirley

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. 1905 Excerpt: ..."I never could correct that composition," observed Shirley, as Moore concluded. "Your censor-pencil scored it with condemnatory lines, whose signification I strove vainly to fathom." She had taken a crayon from the tutor's desk, and was drawing little leaves, fragments of pillars, broken crosses, on the margin of the book. "French may be half-forgotten, but the habits of the French lesson are retained, I see," said Louis: "my books would now, as erst, be unsafe with you. My newly bound St Pierre would soon be like my Racine: Miss Keeldar, her mark--traced on every page." Shirley dropped her crayon as if it burned her fingers. "Tell me what were the faults of that devoir?" she asked. "Were they grammatical errors, or did you object to the substance?" "I never said that the lines I drew were indications of faults at all. You would have it that such was the case, and I refrained from contradiction." "What else did they denote i" "No matter now." "Mr Moore," cried Henry, "make Shirley repeat some of the pieces she used to say so well by heart." "If I ask for any, it will be ' Le Cheval Dompte, '" said Moore, trimming with his pen-knife the pencil Miss Keeldar had worn to a stump. She turned aside her head; the neck, the clear cheek, forsaken by their natural veil, were seen to flush warm. "Ah she has not forgotten, you see, sir," said Henry, exultant. "She knows how naughty she was." A smile, which Shirley would not permit to expand, made her lip tremble; she bent her face, and hid it half with her arms, half in her curls, which, as she stooped, fell loose again. "Certainly, I was a rebel " she answered. "A r...