Page:George Weston--The apple-tree girl.djvu/25

 and the village below … and the sunset over the far-off hills … dreaming the dreams which you used to dream when you were a child, and all unconsciously preparing herself for the quest of the Promised Land.

In short, if you had searched the country over it is doubtful if you could have found a scene—or a girl—more conducive to the growth of Romance. And as she grew older, and her dresses grew longer, and her straight lines and angles began to turn into tender young curves, she often found herself dreaming the Golden Dream of how the prince would presently come to court her.

Charlotte finished school in her fifteenth year, the one bright star in a small, dim lot of jewels. Twelve months before her father had taken to his bed and died in the same grim way he had lived, knowing himself the last of the Marlins and never quite forgiving her because she wasn't a boy. It was nearly