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given a glance at the desolate home in Surbiton, familiar to you no
doubt through the medium of illustrated interviews, where the unhappy
stepmother--
That stepmother, it must be explained, is quite well known to you.
That is a little surprise I have prepared for you. She is 'Thomas
Plantagenet,' the gifted authoress of that witty and daring book, "A
Soul Untrammelled," and quite an excellent woman in her way,--only it
is such a crooked way. Her real name is Milton. She is a widow and
a charming one, only ten years older than Jessie, and she is always
careful to dedicate her more daring works to the 'sacred memory of my
husband' to show that there's nothing personal, you know, in the matter.
Considering her literary reputation (she was always speaking of herself
as one I martyred for truth,' because the critics advertised her
written indecorums in column long 'slates'),--considering her literary
reputation, I say, she was one of the most respectable women it is
possible to imagine. She furnished correctly, dressed correctly, had
severe notions of whom she might meet, went to church, and even at times
took the sacrament in some esoteric spirit. And Jessie she brought up so
carefully that she never even let her read "A Soul Untrammelled." Which,
therefore, naturally enough, Jessie did, and went on from that to a
feast of advanced literature. Mrs. Milton not only brought up Jessie
carefully, but very slowly, so that at seventeen she was still a clever
schoolgirl (as you have seen her) and quite in the background of
the little literary circle of unimportant celebrities which 'Thomas
Plantagenet' adorned. Mrs. Milton knew Bechamel's reputation of being a
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