Excerpt from Love's Proxy "Seven, and nine," said Mrs. Lavington wearily, "are fifteen." "Sixteen," corrected her daughter. "And Sarah's wages to be added; that makes - " Miss Lavington walked to the window, and, drawing aside one of the muslin curtains, looked out into the street. Her mother was in the habit of paying her household bills once a fortnight; and on every alternate Monday morning the writing-table in the little drawing-room of No. 101, Ovington Street was littered with what she called "the books" - a greasy collection of thin volumes exhaling a doubtful smell. Mrs. Lavington, pen in hand, paused in her calculations. Leaning back in her chair, she gazed at her daughter in silence, and her face wore a troubled and preoccupied expression. A ladylike, middle-aged woman, her hair already streaked with grey, she still retained the traces of considerable beauty. 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.