Read "My Lady Bountiful" by Fred M. White online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
Daylight was at odds with the darkness, so that the candles in the big silver sconces seemed faint under their red shades. It was a warm evening, and the party at Beacon Lodge dined with the windows open, so that the scent of the flowers came in; the rough note of a landrail came in with a certain suggestion of drowsiness.
It all looked so strangely familiar and yet so different; here were the old pictures and silver and china, there sat the mistress of all exactly as she had been wont to do at Caradoc, though she was gentler and quieter now and her features were tranquil. An indescribable refinement lay over everything, that nameless charm that goes with a well-ordered home. Cedric had set out the dessert and vanished; Kathleen was demurely eating strawberries and cream.