A Strayed Allegiance `` Will you go to the Cove with me this afternoon ? '' It was Marian Lesley who asked the question . Esterbrook Elliott unpinned with a masterful touch the delicate cluster of Noisette rosebuds she wore at her throat and transferred them to his buttonhole as he answered courteously : `` Certainly . My time , as you know , is entirely at your disposal . '' They were standing in the garden under the creamy bloom of drooping acacia trees . One long plume of blossoms touched lightly the soft , golden-brown coils of the girl 's hair and cast a wavering shadow over the beautiful , flower-like face beneath it . Esterbrook Elliott , standing before her , thought proudly that he had never seen a woman who might compare with her . In every detail she satisfied his critical , fastidious taste . There was not a discordant touch about her . Esterbrook Elliott had always loved Marian Lesley -- or thought he had . They had grown up together from childhood . He was an only son and she an only daughter . It had always been an understood thing between the two families that the boy and girl should marry . But Marian 's father had decreed that no positive pledge should pass between them until Marian was twenty-one . Esterbrook accepted his mapped-out destiny and selected bride with the conviction that he was an exceptionally lucky fellow . Out of all the women in the world Marian was the very one whom he would have chosen as mistress of his fine , old home . She had been his boyhood 's ideal . He believed that he loved her sincerely , but he was not too much in love to be blind to the worldly advantages of his marriage with his cousin . His father had died two years previously , leaving him wealthy and independent . Marian had lost her mother in childhood ; her father died when she was eighteen .
Since then she had lived alone XXXXX her aunt .
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