A Romantic Young Lady

"Mr. Grant is nothing if not entertaining--nothing if not subtle. Himself a clever analyst, he defies analysis."--THE UNIVERSITY.

MR. GRANT'S NOVELS.

THE KNAVE OF HEARTS.

1 vol. 12mo. $1.50.

"It is a companion to 'The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl,' being the autobiography of a young man who devotes himself to the profession of heart-breaking. The various species of American female flirts are amusingly and clearly sketched by a few light but powerful strokes, and this, together with the simple yet surprisingly successful methods employed to make the girls' acquaintance, to lead them gently on to the brink of the precipice, and then to drop them, instantaneously and utterly, makes the book a veritable 'flirt's vade mecum.'"--The Argonaut.

AN AVERAGE MAN.

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"There is a good strong purpose throughout the story. The style is rapid and bright."--Life.

THE CONFESSIONS OF A FRIVOLOUS GIRL.

1 vol. 16mo. $1.25.

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A ROMANTIC YOUNG LADY.

1 vol. 12mo. $1.50.

Mr. Grant's latest work, and in many respects his best.

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=TICKNOR & COMPANY, BOSTON.=

* * * * *

A ROMANTIC YOUNG LADY

by

ROBERT GRANT

Author of "The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl," "An Average Man," "The Knave of Hearts," Etc.

Boston Ticknor and Company 1886

Copyright, 1886, by Ticknor and Company. All rights reserved.

University Press: John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.

CONTENTS

BOOK PAGE I. Innocence. 7 II. Sophistication. 71 III. (Un)common Sense. 221

BOOK I.

INNOCENCE.

I.

My mother died in giving me birth. My father was a very rich man, a railway magnate, so called, absorbed in great business enterprises. Thus it happened that I was brought up between two fires,--my father's sister, Aunt Agnes; and my mother's sister, Aunt Helen.

Aunt Agnes was prim but cultivated. She wrote for reviews and wore eye-glasses, and her library table was habitually littered with pamphlets and tomes. On the other hand, Aunt Helen was a neat, dapper little woman, who lived in a gem of a house and delighted in bric-à-brac and entertaining. They were both spinsters. Each of them passed one evening in every week with me. On Tuesdays I dined with Aunt Agnes, and on Fridays with Aunt Helen. Thus I was alone only two evenings out of seven, for on Sundays my father did not go to the Club.

From the age of ten until I was fifteen I attended a private school. I proved ambitious and quick at my books. Aunt Helen was anxious that I should be well grounded in the modern languages, while Aunt Agnes wished me to pursue what she styled "serious" studies. In my efforts to please them both I broke down in health. My father was the first to observe my pallid cheeks, and at the advice of a physician I was taken away from school. For nearly a year I was idle, save that I read at random in my father's library. Then my aunts for once put their heads together and insisted upon my having a governess. They told my father that the next three years were the most important in my life, and that the best way to foster my health was to find some judicious person to be my companion.

Aunt Helen was in favor of one who had youth and good spirits, but Aunt Agnes thought it important that a governess should inspire respect. I was not consulted, and my father declined to arbitrate between them. In the end, the favorite of Aunt Agnes was installed, through the chance discovery that the other applicant had been at one time on the stage.