Sink or Swim? , Volume I by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun

The Lady Millicent Vavasour, whose proceedings were thus so freely / commented upon by her inferiors, was the only child of the rich and / potent Earl of Gillingham. That nobleman, who survived the Countess, his / wife, but little more than a year, bequeathed at his decease, with / restrictions and a good deal _à contre cœur_, all that he possessed, in / land, mines, personalty, and otherwise, to his only child, the Lady / Millicent aforesaid and in the last chapter duly commented upon.

The income produced by the above-mentioned properties -- of all of which / the heiress came into undisputed possession at the age of / twenty-three -- amounted at a moderate computation to thirty thousand / pounds per annum. The Lady Millicent Vavasour therefore took her stand / on the platform of public estimation with the _prestige_ of being one of / the richest heiresses in England.