Read "The Interloper" by Violet Jacob online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
AGNETA and Mary Fordyce were in the drawing-room of Fordyce Castle, an / immensely solemn apartment rendered more so by the blinds which were / drawn half-mast high in obedience to an order from Lady Fordyce. She / was economical, and the carpet was much too expensive to be looked upon / by the sun. In the semi-darkness which this induced the two girls were / busy, one with her singing, which she was practising, and the other / with the tambour-work she loved. Mary, the worker, was obliged to sit / as close as possible to the window in order to get light by which to / ply her needle. Agneta's voice rose in those desolate screams which are / the exclusive privilege of the singer practising, and for the emitting / of which any other person would justly be punished. Though thin, she / was very like Crauford, with the same fresh colour and the same large / front teeth, now liberally displayed by her occupation. Mary was / short-sighted and a little round-shouldered from much stooping over her / work-frame.
‘I am afraid from what mamma has heard that Lady Eliza Lamont is not a / very nice person; so eccentric and unfeminine, she said,' observed / Mary.