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116 MY GEE AT AUNT POI/LY'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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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 ...
delightful anticipations of the irrevocable "blacksmith . Was it Simeon Fletcher ? Yesit must be the pious and indefatigable
Simeonwho shrank from , no exertionand -would carry Polly off to teach the , Catechism to black babies , in the mid-Pacific , there
probably to be by them killed and eaten when they attained to years of discretion . But no ! in turning a corner on his way home
he came full tilt against Simeon , frying along at treble his usual paceand ejaculating fragments of Methodist hymns as a relief to
his feelings , . Simeon had evidently just heard the report , and he was not the sinner ; then it must be Mr . Burton of the Grange . Paul
lingered in the by-ways , cherishing horrid animosity against Mr . Burton of the Grange ; _biit at ten o'clock that athletic young worthy
came galloping into Burchester , breathing fire and fury . He also had heard from one of the tradesmen of the great event of the
morning , coupled with the assurance that Mr . Paul Lefevre ' s own chariot had been seen by early passers driving cautiously in the direction
of Zephaniah Dever ' s house : roasting alive would constitute a mild expression of Mr . Burton ' s intentions towards the lord of the Priory .
In a quarter of an hour the whole town said to its neighbour that Mr . Paul had run off with the beautiful Polly Dever ; that it was
quite against her will , an abduction in fact ; that everybody knew what the Lefevres were—like father , like son ; that disgrace was
fallen on the respectable mercer ; that Polly -would be taken abroad , would never come back ; would be drowned in a sack ; -would be
smothered by a pillow ; would poison her betrayer ; would be stabbed by him with a knife ; would—in short , the Saxon language
can hardly express the various contradictory accusations breathed by the inhabitants of Burchester against the unfortunate swain , who
stood , as if fascinated by his misfortunes , behind one of his own trees abutting upon the high road . Tarquin and Othello were
represented as sugar and molasses compared to the unfortunate Paul , whom shame and the fear of ridicule kept from coming forward
in his own vindication . It is not pleasant to have a whole town laughing at your discomfiture , and it were well to delay the evil
hour as long as possible . In the mean time the staid and placid Zephaniah wrung his hands ; SamuelJonasand Darias stuffed
, , their fingers into their mouths and eyes , with howls of grief and vague apprehensions for their beloved Polly ; and Mrs . Dever , after
indulging in a fit of laughing hysterics , ( under which attack she fearfully resembled a tame hyaena ) , said she was sure Polly had
been run away with against her will by that miserable rake Paul Lefevre , and would be murdered will you nill you , —but after all
what could you expect from Clorinda ' s way of bringing * up ? I must now , my dear reader , introduce for a few moments a new
personage on to the scene . My own grandfather , Mr . Dever ' s eldest son , a young man of sixteen , had been during two years at
Liverpool , in a warehouse , which was one of the most thriving places of
116 My Gee At Aunt Poi/Ly's Elopement.
116 MY GEE AT AUNT POI / LY ' S ELOPEMENT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1858, page 116, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041858/page/44/
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