//<br >Chapter 1<br > Neil Powers rapped on the opened door of his daughter s<br >room and stuck his head in. "Quinta? You coming to the Ball?"<br > Quinta was lying on the quilted coverlet of her white<br >spindled bed, reading. A huge bowl of fruit lay next to her. She<br >plucked a grape from a half-eaten bunch and without looking<br >up said, "Nah. I think I ll pass. I m really enjoying this book."<br > "What re you reading?"<br > "Pride and Prejudice."<br > "For pity s sake, girl. Why read about balls when you can<br >go to one?"<br > She looked up and laughed at that and tapped the pages<br >ofh~ book. Because its lots easier to pretend I m dancing at<br >this one," she said, and her face, which still had some growing<br >up to~do, sparkled with teenage superiority.<br > It was a pretty face, tanned and with a refreshingly un-<br >pert nose, and framed by straight gold hair. It didn t look like<br >her mother s, and it didn t look like her father s. Quinta was the<br >only one of five children who truly had believed, that her<br >parents found her under a cabbage leaf; change-of-life babies<br >are like that.<br > "Sure you won t come? When your sister s back up and<br >around I can always drag her, but for now . . ." He was<br >packing the loose tobacco in his pipe with his index finger, a<br >careful study in abandonment.<br > Quinta flipped the book over on its front and sighed. Her<br >father was getting better and better at laying on the guilt. For<br >the last four years, ever since her mother died, he d been<br >wandering through life aimlessly, leaning on one daughter,<br >then another, to share his activities. But daughters have a way<br >of growing up, and now everyone had left the nest except<br >Quinta. As she watched him, calmly aware that she was being<br >manipulated, it suddenly became obvious to her: He would<br >not grow up while she was there to minister to him.<br > 3<br ><br >
發表於2024-12-27
The Challenge and the Glory 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
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The Challenge and the Glory 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載