Explore "Daniel Deronda" by George Eliot on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Life is a various mother: now she dons / Her plumes and brilliants, climbs the marble stairs / With head aloft, nor ever turns her eyes / On lackeys who attend her; now she dwells / Grim-clad, up darksome alleys, breathes hot gin, / And screams in pauper riot. / But to these / She came a frugal matron, neat and deft, / With cheerful morning thoughts and quick device / To find the much in little.
Mrs. Meyrick's house was not noisy: the front parlor looked on the river, and the back on gardens, so that though she was reading aloud to her daughters, the window could be left open to freshen the air of the small double room where a lamp and two candles were burning. The candles were on a table apart for Kate, who was drawing illustrations for a publisher; the lamp was not only for the reader but for Amy and Mab, who were embroidering satin cushions for "the great world."