Excerpt from A Queen of the Paddock: A Romance of the Race Course But it was not solely for these accomplishments that Violetta had been sent to Montpellier House. Captain Vaughan, her father, who if he never seemed to be blest with this world's coin, had plenty of the world's wisdom and experience, told his daughter to make advantageous acquaintances among the aristocratic pupils, and she had not failed to take the parental advice. Ella Norman, one of these aristocratic young ladies, at the end of her last term invited Violetta to spend the summer vacation at Normanhurst. Violetta accepted the invitation gratefully, and as part of her vocation was to make herself agreeable and as she had in addition a great capacity for getting all the enjoyment out of life that came in her way, she thoroughly ingratiated herself with the whole household, and especially with Sir John Norman. She had not been twenty-four hours in the old mansion before her quick brain had summed up the character of the baronet. Easy-going good-natured susceptible could be fooled by any pretty woman who likes to take the trouble to flatter him, was her summary, and she was not far out. But what was the use of her wasting her blandishments when they were likely to lead to nothing? To begin with, Sir John was married. He was also a grass widower, but in his case a loosening of the marriage tie made no difference, and Violetta had not been long at Normanhurst before she discovered this. Not that it mattered very much to her. She was by no means anxious for married life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.