She has a fine disapproving air of anything that smacks of entertainment. In appearance, she is tall and thin. Her auburn hair, her best feature, is bound in a tight knob and covered with a cap. Yet despite her sour expression and plain dressing, she has a natural air of elegance, which I envy. I have a similar shade of hair and I wear mine short and loose. Auntie’s elegance is entirely lacking in me. I stand five feet five inches and have a well-rounded figure. Not fat, just rounded! My fingers are usually smeared with paint or ink, my gowns splattered with mud or powdered with dust. Lollie tells me my best hope of nabbing a parti is my eyes and my dot of fifteen thousand pounds. My eyes are green and adequately lashed. Mama left me her dot, as Lollie was to inherit Oakbay Hall. Aunt Talbot is our paternal aunt, Papa’s spinster sister. She arrived in our lives three years ago when Mama died. We were already beyond redemption. I, at nineteen, was not about to be bear-led by a poor relation.
What do You think about A Tall Dark Stranger (1996)?
