Explore "Given in Marriage" by B.M. Croker on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Honourable Mrs. Ffinch was a woman of forty; thin, dark, rather sallow, and not specially noticeable, until she spoke -- then her face became transformed; the half-closed, greenish-grey eyes, lit up; the ugly wide mouth revealed beautiful teeth, and an enchanting smile. "Finchie" as her intimates called her, had been endowed with an attractive voice, inexhaustible vitality, and a big brain.
Even her enemies -- and these were not a few -- admitted her cleverness, and powers of fascination; whilst her friends deplored the lamentable fact that poor "Finchie's" great talents, had no suitable outlet within the circumscribed orbit of a planter's wife. She was gifted with the capabilities of a brilliant hostess, and could have held a _salon_, or seriously engaged in political and diplomatic affairs; having the gift of a strategic silence, wonderful success in extracting confidences, and the capacity for holding strings; -- unfortunately her talents transcended her opportunities!