Beauty or Brains

She imagined the man she loved would be a hero like those in a Walter Scott novel.
Or perhaps he would be strange, cynical yet unstable like a Jane Austen hero.
He would also be a mixture of the Knights of Chivalry and the explorers.

He should be brave in being willing to lose his life to save a damsel in distress, or a helpless child.
She was sure that the man she loved would be all these things.
One day she would meet him and they would live happily ever after.

t was not the love she wanted, and which was part of her dreams.
Living in the country and seeing very few people, especially this last year when she had been in mourning, she knew very little about men.

It was not the love she wanted, and which was part of her dreams.

was not the love she wanted, and which was part of her dreams.
Living in the country and seeing very few people, especially this last year when she had been in mourning, she knew very little about men.

with you at first sight – that is true, at any rate!”

“I will – never lie – again,” Lavina vowed

But – not about staying in – your house?”

“Of course not,” the Marquis said. “I met you in London at a very respectable dinner-party given by Katherine and Rupert Wick, and I fell in

You are being very silly! You know as well as I do that if we announce our engagement and arrange a big wedding every man who was staying with me for the shooting-party will recognise you

I think, my precious, I must talk to your father and ask him to marry us at once.”

“A – at – once?” Lavina stammered

for us ever to lose each other.”