Eleanora H. Stooke 
Moat House, or, "Sir Jasper’s Favourite Niece" [EPUB ebook] 

Excerpt: ""Joy, I wish you’d put down that stupid book, and talk! You can’t think how curious I feel! And how you can sit there reading so quietly when mother’s in the next room with that strange gentleman, I can’t imagine! I wonder what he’s saying to her! I don’t believe you’re in the least curious to know!" Joy, whose real name was Joyce, shut her book, and looked at the speaker-her sister Celia-with thoughtful, grey eyes. Her mind was still occupied with the entrancing story she had been reading; and it took her several minutes to realise that her companion was in a state of feverish impatience to ascertain the business of the visitor who had requested a private interview with their mother, and still kept her in earnest conversation in the drawing-room. Joy had admitted the stranger into the house nearly half an hour before."