arried for Her Beauty; Or, a Bitter

Atonement
Bertha M. Clay, Charlotte M. Brame

3.93

28 ratings1 review

Diane Balfour was the only child of an artist who had begun life with high aspirations and ended it with
disappointment. He had married young, while in France. He married a French girl, whose face was her
only fortune, the daughter of an officer who died in Algiers—Diane de Lioncourt. He brought her to
England, and although happy in his love and in his marriage, evil fortune seemed to pursue him. His
health failed. He had genius, and if he had been strong would have left his mark on the age; the merits
of Lawrence Balfour’s pictures were not appreciated until after his death. He lived in France until after
the birth of his daughter Diane, so named after her mother. Then they came to England and for six years
remained in London. Then his wife died; and he betook himself to a wandering life. In his travels his
daughter was his sole companion. Together they would wander through the cities of Italy and Spain,
through Switzerland and the Rhine land, the artist teaching his daughter, imbuing her with his love of
beauty and art. Lawrence Balfour preserved his daughter from all evil, from all knowledge of harm; she
had no friends except the artists who visited her father’s studio, and who respected the child as they
would have done the presence of an angel. She not only grew up retaining all her innocence, but she
learned nothing of the world. They had a reverent way of talking, these artists, and next to religion,
taught her to love art. Of the shows, tricks, frauds, treachery, the deceit men and women practice she
knew nothing. No one in her presence had ever talked of flirtation, love, or marriage; at sixteen she was
ignorant of these things; she had never thought of a lover or of love; her father and the world of beauty
filled her heart and soul. Then Lawrence Balfour found his health failing fast. Some one told him to try
the warm Devonshire air, and he determined to do so.

440 pages, Paperback

Published April 3, 2009

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About the author

Bertha M. Clay
123 books26 followers

Pseudonym of Charlotte M. Brame.