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MY GREAT AUNT POLLY' S ELOPEMENT. 113
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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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 ...
he bourhood contemp under lated shelter a resort of on Mrs the . Paul following Lefevre inorning . To . Poll y , therefore ,
It is some time since we left that young lady : my reader will please to imagine my youthful great-aunt sitting in the fork of an
apple-tree at the bottom of her brother ' s garden , and looking dreamily over the wide and placid river along whose farther bank
the lily-leaves were trembling in the ripple of a passing oar . That Polly was happy at Burchester we will scarcely affirm ; indeed ,
there are indications of the reverse in her letters to Lavinia Billings ( see epistle docketed 107 and tied up -with a piece of tarnished
silver ribbon by that faithful friend ) . My great-grandmother ' s constant hits at the memory of the departed Clorinda were
anything but sweet to the ears of an affectionate child . The girl had been spoilt and petted at York , alike by her mother and by Mr .
Chiselton ; and in spite of her assertion that she always had her own way , Polly did not find the rule hold good at Burchester .
Samuel , Jonas , and Darias teased and adored her by turns ; Simeon Fletcher lent her tracts and hymns which ranged oddly
enough on her one little shelf with ' The Mysterious Lover ; ' and Mr . Burton of the Grange , a jolly toping young farmer whom Polly
detested , persecuted her with unwelcome love from one week ' s end to another . And Polly , who "was too young really to love anybody ,
but not too young to coquet with and plague everybody as soon as she saw her power , led them all a pretty life , and herself in turn one not
much to her own liking . The coast seemed very clear for Mr . Paul Lefevre , who was much better bred and much kinder in his
courtship of the young girl , humoured her little whims , lent her volumes of sentimental poetry , offered to teach her to play on the guitar , and
had really won something of her confidence . She was musing over the vexations of her youth , and thinking how peculiarly disagreeable
Mrs . Dever was on a washing day , when her ear caught the gentle plash of a cautious oar slowly approaching from behind the willows .
Very silently stole the boat onwards , and at last the head of a man , of a gentleman , was seen peering among the branches—the
very handsome and unmistakable head of Mr . Paul Lefevre . Polly ' s first impulse was to scramble down from the apple-tree ; but this
was no easy matter ; it would never do to make an inelegant descent ; she had read ' The Mysterious Lover ; ' she knew how ladies
should behave—with what reserved decorum , what modest condescension and she remained where she was , looking as pretty - as
a young apple-blossom , and decidedly in a post of advantage compared to that of Mr . Paul Lefevre . This singular aplomb was part
of Polly ' s character . Many a maiden would have been utterly overcome under the circumstances . Polly , like a wise general , at
all times accepted facts as they were , and now sat looking down composedly on the agitated gentleman .
We are not writing a novel , and cannot therefore profess , as
My Great Aunt Polly' S Elopement. 113
MY GREAT AUNT POLLY ' S _ELOPEMENT . 113
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 113, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/41/
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