PART FIRST
O LOVE WILL VENTURE IN!
CHAPTER I
THE thing that I know least about is my beginning. For it is possible to
introduce Ethel Rawdon in so many picturesque ways that the choice is
embarrassing, and forces me to the conclusion that the actual
circumstances, though commonplace, may be the most suitable. Certainly
the events that shape our lives are seldom ushered in with pomp or
ceremony; they steal upon us unannounced, and begin their work without
giving any premonition of their importance.
Consequently Ethel had no idea when she returned home one night
from a rather stupid entertainment that she was about to open a new and
important chapter of her life. Hitherto that life had been one of the
sweetest and simplest character--the lessons and sports of childhood and
girlhood had claimed her nineteen years; and Ethel was just at that
wonderful age when, the brook and the river having met, she was feeling
the first swell of those irresistible tides which would carry her day by day
to the haven of all days