Rich Twin, Poor Twin [antikvár]

Chapter i"I suppose you couldn't take both the little girls, Mrs. Desmond?" the matron of the orphanage said. "They're twins, you know, and very devoted to each other. At least," she amended, "Mary is very devoted to Pearl."The large, plump woman facing her shook her hennaed head decisively."I couldn't think of it, Matron," she said. "Apart from the fact that we only want to adopt one little girl, the sister is quite distressingly plain."The matron smiled faintly. "Yes, I suppose that is true."'"My husband insists that we adopt a pretty child," Mrs. Desmond went on. "He says nothing would make him feel more mortified than to have an ugly daughter attached to the household. For you understand. Matron, that this little girl will become a daughter to us in every way.""She will be very fortunate," the matron said. She was thinking not so much of the Desmonds themselves but of the Desmond fortune. It was rimioured that Mr. Desmond was almost a millionaire. She was thinking of Cathcart Park, the lovely Desmond home near Leightonsfield in the Midlands. She had never seen it but she had seen photographs of it in the illustrated papers. She was thinking of all the advantages Pearl would have as their daughter. So many advantages for a peimiless little orphan girl it made one's head spin."She will take our name, of course," Mrs. Desmond was saying. "What's that dreadful name she has now?'-"Houghtonstone," the matron supplied."She is just the right age too," Mrs. Desmond said. "I think you said she v/as ten, didn't you. Matron? Ten is a nice sensible age. We will keep her at home with governesses for a year or so, after which she will be sent to one of the best girls' boarding schools in the country.""She is very fortunate," The matron said it again. But her heart was heavy. She was stiU thinking of Mary."Both the parents were drowned when a pleasure steamer collided with a liner, I think you told me?" Mrs, Desmond remarked. "I think you said also you have been unable to trace any relatives?"