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186 THE MISDEEDS OF AURA PLAISTOW.
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...
"being healthy , innocent , and unsuspecting , was not sensitive enough to feelor quick enough to seewhat lay amiss for her in the near
future . , The first evening was , a curious niedley . She took them all by storm , and bewildered them so , that they never attempted
self-defence . It was the most wonderful evening ! Mrs . Delane stern and frowning ; the girls pale and icy ; Tom , embarrassed _OLit
of all likeness to himself , chilled and stiffened under the old home influences ; and Aura , loud , good-natured , _Linconventional , and
_Linconstrained , smiling with such persistent brightness , even when the frowns gloomed heaviest around her , that Tom almost lost his wits
for agony at her obtuseness , and fear of the explosion she was sure to bring herself sooner or later . She asked the _yo _^ _lng ladies
to play ; upon and herself , uninvited , opened the piano , and rattled off a noisy quadrille , very badly done , with false notes scrambled over
anyhow , and no attempt at intelligible time . Then she burst out into a song , which might have been pretty had it been accurate ,
but which was given , though in a loud , clear ,, fresh voice , with such a decided heresy as to musical canonsthat not many people would
, have interpreted it at all , according to the written sense . And after this was done , not in the least heeding their blank looks and
eloquent silence , she took Miss Margaret ' s hand , and dragged her to the ianositting by her and saying" Oh yes ! you'll sing , I ' m
p , , sure ! " when Margaret refused , stiffly , and said she would rather not . There was no resisting Aura ; so Margaret sang a pseudo
hymn all in the minor key , and with an accompaniment of solemn chords .
" I daresay it ' s rather pretty , " said Aura , when it was finished , " but isn't it too grave ? Isn't it more fit for a church than for
a room ?" " We do not like frivolous music here , " said Mrs . Delane very lad ?
sharply ; then she added , "Do you never work , young ynever loy yourself usefully ?"
emp " 6 C Indeed No , " laug ! and hed what Aura , then , " we , do never you work do in at the home evening . " ? " and the
lady looked up from the blue checked shirt she was making" for a Dorcas basket , as a judge might from his notes , when about to
condemn the prisoner . 66 1 don't know—what do we , Tom ? Sing or play , sometimes
times have a lay game at blind at battledore man ' s buff or or les hide graces and with seek the . I ' children m sure , I some don' t
know p what , because , you know , , we have no evenings like this at Merridnowhere we all sit round a table . We are generally out ,
_bofch in winter , and summer ; for there is always something to be done , and we don't care for weather . "
" What a fearful life , " said Mrs . Delane . " "Wh How y ? do " asked you think Aura , you in her will wide ever way be . fit for domestic life , any id thldl
of you , after such a training as this ? " sae ay , severey .
186 The Misdeeds Of Aura Plaistow.
186 THE MISDEEDS OF AURA PLAISTOW .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1858, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111858/page/42/
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