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192 THE MISDEEDS OF ATJBA PliAISTOWV
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...
so tightly , and kept Aura at such , an awful distance , that offcen the irl felt as if she had engaged herself to his brother , who had left
li g er here under his care ; but as for feeling engaged to . him ,- as he was nowshe did not . Whlie scarcely ever spoke to her , and was
very seldom , with , her ! When y they were all in the room together , Tom would invariablmake some excuse , and go away ; or if
pressed by his mother y to stay , in a manner to which there was no refusing , he was too well _tatight for that , or __ if softened by Aura ' s
laughing , coaxing , sweet-tempered loving-ness , into believing that things would go smoothly that evening , he would sit in such evident
misery , and manifest such a disposition to " snub" Aura , and to find thing she said and did vulgar or mis-timed , that the poor
every child , hearty as she was , grew daily more depressed and more unconsciously unhappy ; not critical enough to understand what
hurt her , nor introspective enough to quite make out that she was hurt at all . This was so different to what it had been ; for at
Merridno Tom had been the merriest laugher and the blithest vagabond of them all ; the first for a game with kitten , pup , or
child ; the wildest rover , and the most unconventional lover ; while now and here , he was made of buckram , bristling with chevaux de
frise . But Tom had somewhat played a part at Merridno ; and was just as excessive in his unrestraint as he was now at home in his
conventional proprieties . For Tom was weak , and always wore the colors of his company , and made his cockade the largest of the
party . Aura , understanding nothing of pressure from without , or the contagion of lecould not penetrate the causes of this
examp , change . She thought him dull and uncomfortable , and not half so handsome as he was at Merridnocertainly not half so agreeable ;
, and she wondered at the many faults he had so suddenly discovered in her , but she supposed he was right , only it was not pleasant to
find out that one was so bad as he said she was ; she thought only this , not that her lover was cowardly or unmanly , as she would
have done had she known the truth , and been able to read of the grief George to come Grace . kept horses . Mrs . Delanethough rich , kept none ;
, because a stable would have necessitated men servants , and Mrs . Delane thought men servants a sinful institution . But when Tom
was at home George Crace used to lend him a horse two or three days a week ; for though no love existed between the cousins , little
Georgie was good-natured and bore no malice . However , he changed the usual course of his offer to-dayandinstead of to Tom , proffered
, , the loan of his bay mare to Aura , with the preface , " could she ride ?"
" Bide ! " shouted Aura , shewing her white teeth , " yes , that I can ! bare backed and the most vicious brute in England . Bide ,
I should think so ! I was mounted when four years old , and I have lived half my life on horseback ever since . Mamma is a first-rate
rider ; she rides like a—what are those things with horses' heads ?"
192 The Misdeeds Of Atjba Pliaistowv
192 THE _MISDEEDS OF ATJBA PliAISTOWV
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1858, page 192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111858/page/48/
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