The Admiral's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page A

and music sprang more from her innate understanding of what a thing ought to be than from training, and while she delighted in everything beautiful she saw or heard about her, she could not have told anyone why. No one knew better than she that her manner of playing the pianoforte was more like doing battle with the music than performing, and, conscious of the fact, she was loath to display her skill before others, try as her father would to coax her into it. Her patience was so limited, and her enthusiasm so great, that she could not be persuaded to practice above half an hour together before the beauty of the day or some other occupation called her away. When she had failed to master a whole concerto in that time, or even the first movement, she would say, with a rueful smile: “Clearly I have no talent in this direction. Let others, who have real skill, perform—I shall enjoy the lesser talent of appreciating their accomplishments!”
    Such had been her attitude throughout her life, and, while she had lived twenty-two years very happily with the philosophy, she had now to regret it.
    â€œWhat an awkward wretch they shall think me!” she lamented. And with such kinds of self-criticisms and worries she passed an hour in futile misery. But Maggie was a girl so little given to regretting what she could not change, and her disposition was so inclined to happiness, that more than an hour she could not give to such remonstrations. At the end of that time she stood up with a determined light in her hazel eyes and a mischievous smile on her lips.Glancing into the mirror, she held up the unfortunate jonquil silk once more, and proceeded to do a fast jig about her bedroom. At the end of this exercise she was laughing inwardly, and her face was animated with amusement. Stopping now before her glass, she made a grimace at her own reflection, which returned to her the sight of a young lady radiant with good health and a joy in living, her thick auburn hair coming down a little from its pins, her hazel eyes dancing, and her generous mouth curved up at the corners.
    She would not make herself miserable on their account any longer! What, was she to feel ashamed, only because she had never cared enough about what she wore to have a closet full of gowns in the latest style? Was she to lament the fact that she was not an expert, either at the pianoforte or the drawing table? No! What were such accomplishments in comparison with a warm heart and a desire to be liked? “Let them take me as they find me!” she declared out loud. “I shan’t do anything to make them think better of me in that vein. If they count fashion and music above common courtesy to their relations, I shall not mind being despised by them!”
    So saying, she set about her packing with a renewed vigor and good humor. Having once decided to do nothing extraordinary in the way of improvements to her wardrobe, Maggie almost went so far as to turn away one gown for the fault of its possessing too many silk ribbons, which very nearly made it verge upon the stylish. If, in the natural defiance of her temperament and her loyalty to the Admiral, she was a little more determined to dislike her cousin than she might have been, one very great advantage of the journey did occur to her. Mr. Wayland, for all his avowals that he should not plague her any more, had been nearly as omnipresent as he had been before his proposal. To be sure, he had not called at the manor house, but Maggie had not been able to walk into the village without seeing his resentful countenance. On the previous Sunday he had walked right past her in church without so much as a glance, but his face was so full of his feelings that Maggie would really have preferred one of his lectures. To be removed from that would be a comfort indeed, and she hoped that by the time she returned from her visit he might have forgotten his bitterness and forgiven her.
    There was much to do in