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184 THE MISDEEDS O# AXJBA PiLAISTOW.
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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Transcript
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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.
I. She Was But Nineteen; And Nineteen Do...
strate with the delinquent herself , and had got as far as _" Miss and Flaistow beaming , I da 1 , and not said allow- ——— " when Aura looked up , innocent
, " They are not like Tom ! They are so pale and quiet !" This assault was so complete , that Mrs . I > elane was actually
silenced from surprise , taken , aback and discomfited ; so she was faint to keep her forma in reserve for another occasion , and Aura escaped
for the moment . Before she had time to commit new blunders , Jane was ordered
to take her to her own room ; and Aura , laughing and nodding to * them all as she went , called out at the door cheerily , " I shan't be
long ! " as if she wastelling them a piece of good news , and something tli . ey would be rejoiced to know .
Mrs . Etelane looked affcer her with grim curiosity ; the sisters glanced at each otherbut kept silent ; Tom turned red and pale
, by turns , moved his chair , shuffled with his feet , and played withi his guard chain ; and his mother , satisfied with his embarrassment ,
said nothing ,, knowing that her reticence would be more eloquent of condemnation than the most , fluent , speech .
" Which was right ? " thought Tom , " my admiration of her at Merridno _, or my shame here ?"
The room assigned to Aura was a puritanical little closet , with a couple of swing shelves against the walls , filled with good books of
extreme doctrines , with a strong smell of lavender , scented linen , furniture oil , woollen carpets , moreen curtains , and closed windows _,,
and with an undefinable sense of oppression and imprisonment meeting you like a presence at the door . Now Aura was used to
simple arrangements , at home . Perhaps no house in England equalled Merridno , for its combination of simplicity and artistic
beauty ; perhaps nowhere else could have been found such a dearth of conventional luxury ,, and such a wealth : of natural taste . It
wasnot the smalln _^ ess , or the scanty furniture of her room , then , that struck Aura as sjie followed . Jane into , that well-sized closet , for her
nest at home was , but a closet too ; but it was its utter discomfort , as she read comfort , and its excessive ugliness of arrangement .
The room was carpeted throughout , but the . carpet was of a large pattern , and incongruous colors . At home she had but one rug
hy the side of the bed ; the . rest was all white boards , well washed weekly , and harbouring : no dust . Her own little iron bed was .
p without illow ; but curtains it was , and pleasanter made up to of her a than hard mattress this " tent , and bed one , . ' . hung small
with heavy moreen , which the servant took especial pains to draw qui _^ e close , and with a very mountain of down pillows heaped on
the ., feather bed ,. And Aura , hated feather beds ; at least she did when she tried them , for as yet they were unknown to her . The
consequence of the trial was , that she got up in the middle of the night , and rolled herself up in a blanket on the floor , where she
was found the next morning by Jane , to her utter scandalisatioiL
184 The Misdeeds O# Axjba Pilaistow.
184 THE MISDEEDS O _# AXJBA _PiLAISTOW .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1858, page 184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111858/page/40/
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