Fashion and Passion; Or, Life in Mayfair, by the Author of 'The Honeymoon'.

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. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...at his friend. You mean the younger Miss Fether-stone, he said, re-lighting his cigar which had gone out. Geraldine Fetherstone, that silly, romantic school-girl! well, wonders will never cease; are you smitten with her? I! What a question! No, you always forget that I go about in the character of a sociable ghost; that I see, admire, criticise, observe this fashionable world of yours, and draw my own conclusions from it, but that I am forbidden to take any active part in it, for in reality I belong to another world, though you do try very hard, my good fellow, to make me forget it. How often have I told you that I hate to hear you talk like that? As if you did not know that in reality you are my equal, nay, my superior in every respect. Can it be the proud Marquis of Belgrave who speaks in this strain? Yes, it is, and he never felt prouder, I assure you, than the day when, taking Alfredo Villafranca by the hand--that hand to which he owed his life--he was able to call himself his friend. The two men remained silent for some minutes. At last Alfredo was the first to speak, for he did not want to follow the turn the conversation had taken. Returning to the Misses Fetherstone, I should like to know why you classify the younger sister as a silly, romantic girl. You seem to me most inconsistent; at one moment you blame the whole lot of English young ladies because they only think of getting as rich a husband as they can, and the next moment you accuse the one English young lady I propose to you as an exception, of being a silly, romantic girl. Because there is nothing in this world so inconsistent as human nature. Geraldine Fetherstone may be a charming girl. I am sure I know nothing whatever about her that is not in her...