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ADVENTURES OF YOUE OWN CORRESPONDENTS. 4...
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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. Ip ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦" . </ ¦ - 1* Yottb O. Cs....
some , intelligent-looking woman , -with a particularly expressive face . " Going ! surely we were not going ? The second part was far
the best , and we must see the clog dance . " I beckoned A . back .
" We must stay , " said I , with a royal assumption of importance ; " these people will be so vexed if we go ! "
" Are you not tired ? " suggested A . " Ohno , and I think we ought to stay" said Igravely . I will
, ,, confide the fact to you that I was only too glad to stop ; and that it was with a very reluctant appearance of forced content that I had
ever given in to A . ' s suggestion , of departure . Back we went . The door of the barn was opened to make it
agreeable to us , —ibr the rest of the company did not seem to feel the stifling heat of the atmosphere ; and there we stayed till past
twelve o ' clock ! Yes , there were your O . Cs . sitting in . smiling _enhancement at Mr . Brocklebank's ball , when youno doubt
, , believed them in quiet and rural seclusion . One of the girls interested us particularly . Tall and slighther
, little slender feet were , as the Vicar of Wakefield says , " as pat to the music as its echo . " And her thin face worked , and she knitted
her brows as she watched the others dance and noted their blunders . " I am sure that is the dancing-master ' s daughter , " said I ; and
so she was , and her mother sitting near us , nothing loth , told us about her . She was eleven . She was not " so strong . " She was
a very good musician , and generally played the piano for the others to dancebut to-night she was wanted to complete the number .
, She had had music lessons in Edinburgh ; but they were dear , and as she was eleven she must now do for herself ! We watched this
poor little Mignon , as A . called her , with a painful sort of interest ; and though the velvet caps and scarfs were put on , and the tinsel
wreaths brought down , and a complicated figure dance executed , this little slight creatureleaning wearily against the walland her
, , mother ' s half sad , half proud account of her , quite absorbed our interest . What a strange life was before her , and what strange
possibilities of romance and pain her future held . Her parents were evidently good , hard-working people : but the vagabond
theatrical kind of life , the genius with too much , and yet too little , to feed on ! I don't think we shall forget our Mignon of
Netherwastdale . No material help seemed needed , and there was no opening for any other kind of assistance , so we left a little present
for her . came out of the hot barn on to the cool dark moor ; and with an odd mixture of amusement andfun and half sorrowful
in-, terest , we walked back to our inn . Broad awake again now , and not one bit inclined to sleep ! And
still less inclined to sleep was I , when at nearly two o'clock I heard under my open window these remarkable words in a low voice :
" Is yonr ' s shairp enough , think ye ? "
SJiairp enough for what ? My blood ran cold . A . was sound
Adventures Of Youe Own Correspondents. 4...
ADVENTURES OF YOUE OWN CORRESPONDENTS . 43
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1859, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091859/page/43/
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