Read "Sink or Swim? , Volume I" by Matilda Charlotte Houstoun online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
From the time of that chance meeting, Arthur Vavasour became a very / frequent visitor at the Paddocks. Ostensibly there was generally some / business excuses for the "calls" that were made so often, and lasted so / long. There was so frequently an ailing or an unsound horse, concerning / which an opinion was required; and then, as we already know, the / Paddocks lay so conveniently on the road to Fairleigh, that it was / hardly surprising that poor Sophy's somewhat fickle lover should stop to / rest him on the way.
There is no denying the truth that young Mrs. Beacham did greatly enjoy / Mr. Vavasour's society. They had so many (the old reason! ) tastes in / common. He had read the books _she_ liked, and he delighted in less / commonplace and more classic music than "The soldier's tear," and that / old, old "Banks of Allan Waters," which Honor was so tired of. His voice / too, when he spoke, was so soft and low -- an "excellent thing" in man as / well as woman -- and that same voice sounded doubly pleasant after a / morning spent in listening to Mrs. Beacham's querulous tones and harsh / Yorkshire dialect.