LADIES-IN-WAITING

By

KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN

WITH FRONTISPIECE BY

CHRISTINE TUCKE CURTISS

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

The Riverside Press Cambridge


COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY KATE DOUGLAS RIGGS

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED


FOREWORD

It may be urged that all proper heroines go through a period of uncertainty before giving their hands and hearts in marriage. Occasionally, however, there are longer seasons of indecision, incident to pride, high temper, or misunderstanding on the lady’s side, or to poverty, undue timidity, or lack of high pressure on the part of the gentleman. I have christened the heroines of this volume “Ladies-in-Waiting,” and that no mental picture may be formed of Queen and Court and Maids of Honor I have asked the artist to portray for the frontispiece a marriageable maiden seated pensively upon a hillside. Her attitude is plainly one of suspended animation while the new moon above her shoulders suggests to the reader that she will not wait in vain.

Kate Douglas Wiggin

August 11, 1919


Contents

CHAPTERPAGE
Miss Thomasina Tucker[1]
The Turning-Point[97]
Huldah The Prophetess[145]
Two On A Tour[183]
Philippa’s Nervous Prostration[275]


LADIES-IN-WAITING