CONTENTS
CHAPTER: III,III,IV,V,VI,VII,VIII,IX,X,XI,XII,XIII,XIV,XV,XVI,XVII,XVIII,XIX,XX,XXI,XXII,XXIII,XXIV,XXV,XXVI,XXVII,XXVIII,XXIX,XXX.
The Confounding of
Camelia
By
Anne Douglas Sedgwick
Author of
“The Dull Miss Archinard,” Etc.
New York
Charles Scribner’s Sons
1899
Copyright, 1899, by
Charles Scribner’s Sons
MANHATTAN PRESS
474 W. BROADWAY
NEW YORK
TO
“CHARLIE” AND “JIMMIE”
The Confounding of Camelia
CHAPTER I
WHEN Camelia came down into the country after her second London season,descended lightly upon the home of her forefathers, her comingunannounced, and as much a matter of caprice as had been her longabsence, a slowly growing opinion, an opinion that had begun to formitself during Camelia’s most irresponsible girlhood, became clearlydefined, a judgment fixed and apparently irrevocable. The Patons hadalways been good, quiet people; absolutely undistinguished, were it notthat the superlative quality of their tranquil excellence gave a certaindistinction. There were no black sheep in their annals, and a blacksheep gives, by contrast, a brilliancy lacking to unaccented bucolicgroupings, strikes a note of interest at any rate; but none of the Patonsheep were even gray. They fed in pleasant, plenteous pastures, for itwas a wealthy, though not noticeably wealthy family, and perhaps arather sheep-like dulness, an unimaginative contentment not conducive toadventurous strayings, accounted for the spotless fleeces.
Their cupboards had never held a skeleton—nor so much as the bone ofone. The family portraits, none even pretending to be Sir Joshuas orVandycks, only presented a respectable number of generations, so thatthe mellow perspective of old ancestry, remarkable at least for alengthy retrogression into antiquity, made no background to theircommonplace. Sir Charles, Camelia’s father, was the first Paton