Jubilee Trail [antikvár]

CHAPTER IIn the summer of 1844, Garnet Cameron graduated from Miss Wayne's Select Academy for Young Ladies. On graduation day she was awarded three medals : for music, horsemanship, and politeness.Garnet was halfway between her eighteenth and nineteenth birthdays. She had black hair, so smooth and shiny that it had blue lights in the sun. Her eyes were grey, fringed with heavy black lashes, and her cheeks were so red that she had sometimes been accused of painting them. In spite of her rich colouring, she was not beautiful. Her face was too rugged to meet any ideal of beauty; her forehead was too square and her jaw was too strong and her lips were too full and red. But she had a firm, slim body, her waistline was a mere trifle, and the clothes they were wearing just now were admirably designed to show a well-set figure like hers. A daytime dress covered a girl from throat to instep, but the bodice fitted almost as if it had been pasted on, and the skirt flared just enough to emphasize a tiny waistline without being too full for graceful movement. Garnet was very graceful. At Miss Wayne's Academy part of her daily routine had consisted of walking up and down a circular staircase with a book balanced on her head.She was perfectly healthy, and looked it, and she took a great interest in living. Garnet would have liked to know all about everything. Her main complaint about the world was that it had given her so little chance to know anything at all. She seldom said any such thing out loud. After years of good breeding, Garnet knew that nobody wanted to hear a young lady speak her opinions.Garnet lived in Union Square in the city of New York. Union Square had an air of well-being. Anybody could have seen that this was a nice neighbourhood and the families who lived here were nice people. Garnet's father was Mr. Horace Cameron, vice-president of a bank in Wall Street. Her mother was a charming woman who had found life agreeable so far and expected it to remain so. Garnet had two younger brothers, named Horace, Jr., and Malcolm, who went to the grammar school that prepared boys for Columbia College. They were a pleasant family, well bred and well behaved. On graduation day at Miss Wayne's, when Garnet received her medals and made a curtsy of respect, her mother's friends said she looked like an ideal of proper young ladyhood. Or she would have, if only she had not had such violent red-and-black colouring. And it was a pity her features were not more delicate. But, at any rate, she was a nice girl and no doubt she would make a good marriage.When Garnet got home that evening she put the medals into her bureau drawer. As she shut the drawer she gave a sigh of relief. Her schooldays5