Cousin Elsie will be sure to treat us to something good." And she
ran gayly from the room.
Molly, just turned thirteen, and already as tall as her mother, was a
bright, lively girl, full of fun and frolic. She was not a beauty, but had
a clear complexion and fine dark eyes, and good humor and intelligence
lent a charm to her face that made it more than ordinarily attractive.
Dick had always been fond of her, and was beginning to take a brotherly
pride in her good looks and intellectual gifts.
Enna's feelings toward her were divided between motherly pride and
affection on the one hand, and on the other the dread of being made to
appear old by the side of so tall a daughter; a dread that made her
jealous of Dick also.
The Conly girls, too, were growing fast, giving promise of fair, graceful
womanhood, Isadore particularly of great beauty; which her mother fondly
hoped would be the means of securing her a wealthy husband; for Mrs.
Conly's affections were wholly set upon the things of this life; by her
and her sister Enna, wealth and beauty were esteemed the highest good, and
their children were trained in accordance with that view; the moral
atmosphere of the house being very different from that of Ion, where the
lives and conversation of the parents were such as to leave no doubt in
the minds of their children, that to them the things of time and sense
were as nothing in comparison with those of eternity.
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