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112 MY GREAT AUNT POLLY' S ELOPEMENT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Babl Dear Y Be Reader Declared .—The By ...
speculations in Holland . He had been half forced , half coaxed into wedding Lady Arabella Cholmondely , a proud and lovely
woman , who had made his domestic life as miserable as his apparent lot was admired and envied . Belonging , in fact , to that class of
English gentry who hold their ancient names to be far more honourable than titles handed down from a monarch ' s favourite or a
placeman ' s ambition , the Lefevres held up their heads with the highest ; and if Paul condescended to bestow his affections on my great-aunt
Polly , in the bloom of her innocent youth and beauty , his _sistei Arabellaat leastupheld the honour of the family , and would not
, , hear of her , even as a theme for poetical adoration . Arabella pretended to ignore the possibility of any Lefevre regarding Polly as
a woman to marry , and daily harrowed Lip Paul ' s feelings by off-hand speculations as to her future spouse ; "whether it would be Mr .
Burton of the Grange , who was so assiduous at Mr . Dever ' s ; or whether Simeon Fletcherthe young disciple of the pious Wliitneld , would
, succeed in his ardent desire of enrolling Polly among the saints , and carrying her off to play the part of a missionary ' s wife among
the heathen . On this particular evening she sat by the window of the Ladies' Chamber , the last glow falling on her bright dark hair ,
combed from her high clear forehead after the fashion of the time , talking to Paul about the court of Louis XV ., where they had once
passed a month among the French noblesse , and delicately alluding to a certain charming Comtesse de B ., whose large estates in
Berry required the hand of a master , as much as the name of Lefevre demanded a direct scion of the family stock .
Paul sat moodily strumming on a guitar , which moaned and lamented in unison with his feelings . What should he do ? How
* go against the will of this domineering elder sister , supported as it "was by the will of Henry Burchester , whom she "was about to xnarry ,
and of their uncle , Mr . Charles Lefevre , of whose ample fortune he was the heir ? On the other hand , how give up the charming Poll y ,
whose free spirit and active household graces fascinated him all the more from contrast to the maidens of his own rank ? Paul was in a dreadful state of indecision . He felt sure that Mr . Dever would
never consent to his sister ' s marrying in the teeth of any man ' s had famil Mr y , and . Dever Polly been wanted ever yet so five willing years , Paul to her felt majority quite . unequal Besides to ,
marrying Polly in the parish church in the face of all the congregation . What could be done?—In those days the romance of life was
not quite extinct , and Paul conceived the magnanimous idea of running off with his bride to Gretna Green , and then establishing
her at the Priory in despite of them a _) l . The truth "was that the thought of Polly ' s bolder spirit greatly sustained his own ; and
while he shrank from taking any adventurous step as yet
unsuppo r ted b y her , he f e lt eq u al to faci n g his f am ily and the nei gh-
112 My Great Aunt Polly' S Elopement.
112 MY GREAT AUNT POLLY ' S ELOPEMENT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 112, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/40/
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