Explore "The Yellow Holly" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Every one who was any one knew the Honorable Mrs. Ward. She was a fluffy-haired kitten of a woman, more like a Dresden china shepherdess than a mere human being. Nothing could be prettier than her face and figure, and nothing more engaging than her manners. With her yellow hair, her charming face, and her melting blue eyes, she managed to hold her own against younger women. The late Mr. Ward, Lord Ransome's son, had been a fast young man, devoted to the turf and to his pretty wife. But he was killed when riding in a steeplechase two years after his marriage, and left his widow alone in the world with one daughter for consolation in her affliction. Mrs. Ward being in want of money -- for her deceased father had been a general with nothing but his pay -- played her cards so well with regard to her father-in-law, that he allowed her a good income and thought she was the most perfect of women.
But Lord Ransome was the only one of the family who thought so, for the other relatives fought rather shy of the pretty, pleading widow.