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320 THE PORTRAIT.
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.
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» Chapter Vii. A Seau.Ch Into Motives Is...
sense of _hearing . Silence was in ray soul , darkness brooded over my treading spirit , softl I was and as one slowl who in assisted token in of a my solemn grief funeral . To drive process away ion ,
those thick clouds y of uselessness y I had recourse to my unfailing remedy , the earth and sky and balmy , air , not seen or felt through lime and stoneor gazed at through glassbut with my feet on the
green carpet of , nature ' s fair weaving ; my , eyes free to look upwards without impediment .
I had gone to my favorite locality , Kensington Gardens , to have an hour or two's recreation in the vicinity of the magnificent trees
and the tiny silver lake right opposite the old red brick unostentatious-residence of good King George the Third . I had paced many
times round and round within the grove of dark pines , as their stern loominess was most in unison with my then sunless mood of mind ,
the g and sun had -dial just , emerged which stands from or its did shade stand , and in was the resting centre my of elbow a walk on
near the Palace , meditating on the ' changes and chances of this mortal life .
I was thus standing by the old dial , sometimes with my eyes shut , the better to realize the invisible , and sometimes with them open to
drink in the calm beauty and repose of a summer noon , when the rustle of silk dresses and the sound of feet on the gravel walk
recalled me to the fact that persons were passing close to the spot , and that I ought not to indulge my reveries in a public place of
promenade . The glimpse I had of the party , as they turned rapidly into a side path among the treesbrought my meditations to a dead
who stop . formed I was the far too well to be acqu under ainted , with mistake each as of to the their indivi identit duals . group any y
Mrs . Bethune , Master Edward , his wife , and Cleveland , were those from whom I was distant only a few yards . Fortunatelythey had
, been so engaged talking to each other , that they had passed without recognising Emily Lindores in the solitary figure leaning on the
old sun-dial . This sight , as the reader can well imagine , speedily sent to fliht the idealand brought me in a most distasteful
manner to g the real . Yes , , there they were , within a few paces of mewithin reach of my voice had I chosen to call to them . Four
human , beings with whom I had spent innumerable happy hours , ( in ite of Master Edward ) were thus nearand yet I was mute .
Mute sp from a thousand discords , stunning my senses , , a thousand icedrops running through my veins , and blanching my lips . Mrs .
BulLen with her contemptuous smile came also to mock me , and I fancied I heard her cutting tones as she spoke of Cleveland and Mrs .
nothingness Bethune , while , like her a mali poor gnant leaf bli glance ghted seemed and withered to shrivel by me untimel up int y o
frost . My first impulse was to rush after them , to show how utterly
her indifferent acquisition I was of to Riverton their doings and its ; to heir congratulate , and to ask Mrs Mrs . Mansfield . Bethune on if
320 The Portrait.
320 THE PORTRAIT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1861, page 320, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071861/page/32/
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