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RIGHT OR WKOXG. 381
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.
Jud " Aunt Wa G S Ing Anne She 1 As Tig ...
who was of an old Cumberland family , came over to see us before joining * Ms regiment on foreiservice . He was but one or two
gn years older than I , and we formed a boy and girl attachment , — -a mere fancymy father called it—and when we asked him if we
might consider , ourselves engaged , , he laughed outright , said he would hear of no such nonsense , and forbade my head being turned
by keeping up any sort of intercourse or correspondence . " For some time after he was gone I fretted more than any one
suspected , for the whole affair had been looked upon as so childish that it was soon forgotten by the family , and I should have been
ridiculed for alluding to it . But the affection had taken root , and though graduallI ceased to be unhappystill the recollection of
him never faded y ; I contrasted him witli every , one else that I met in societywhich from obedience towards my parents I still
frequented , and , none found favor in my eyes ; while his last words , saying he would return one day to claim me when he had won a
position to satisfy my father , were cherished in my heart of hearts , clung to , dreamed over , and gilded many an after hour of suffering
and gloom . " My brother was the first taken , a beautiful boy , a midshipman in
the navy . He was drowned at sea , and my poor father never held his head up afterwards : he lingered for a year or two , moping about
his former haunts , no longer interested in his old pursuits , all pleasure in life gone , for his pride , his joy , his hopes had all been centred
in the noble lad who was the last male inheritor of his name . " We were recommended to try _chang-e of scene , and accordingly
we broke up our establishment here ; the dear old house was let , and we went to Bathbut all was of no avail . Repeated attacks
, of paralysis left him weaker each time in mind * and body , requiring our utmost patience and courage , for it is a fearful thing to
watch the extinction of all the intellectual powers in one we have been accustomed to look up to and obey , 'while the faculties for
suffering and complaining still survive . " A few weeks before he died , a packet , forwarded by our friends
from Guernsey , where it had been addressed , was brought to me , as in my mother's harassed and wearied condition it had become one of
my duties to receive and answer whatever letters came to the house . The well remembered handwriting sent the blood rushing to my
heart , for I at once anticipated its contents . Yes ! he had been true to his boyish faith : his desired position was obtained , and
unable to come himself to ask me from my father's hands , he wrote to proffer his request . Ohhow I loved and honored him , Margaret !
How proud I felt at having , inspired such a constancy of affection , although , situated as I then was , I saw no possibility of being able
to requite it . I wrote and told him all that had befallen us , of which he seemed ignorant— -for thirty years ago India was
immeasurably more remote than it now appears—though he had in
some manner contrived to learn that I was still free ; and after des-
Right Or Wkoxg. 381
RIGHT OR WKOXG . 381
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1859, page 331, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071859/page/43/
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