My Lady Nobody

"My Lady Nobody" by Maarten Maartens is a romance novel. The story is set in the Netherlands revealing a lot about its social life and customs during the 19th century. Excerpt: « Part 1.—CHAPTER I URSULA It was a white-hot July morning. Long ago the impatient earth had cast aside her thin veil of summer twilight; already she lay, a Danae, in exultant swoon beneath the golden sun. Yet the bridegroom had barely leaped forth to the conquest; his rath kisses were still drinking the pearly freshness from the dawn, while the loud birds filled the resonant heavens with the tumult of their bridal song. It was still so early, and already so immovably warm; all wide earth and deep sky agasp in the naked blaze. Ursula drew forward her broad-brimmed straw hat, where she stood picking pease among the tall lines of pale-green, blossom-speckled tangle. „Oof!“ she said. Not as your burly farmer says it, but with the prettiest little high-pitched echo of the louder note.»