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166 A DREAM OF NABONASSAR.
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.
E Across The Breezy Channel, Across The ...
shadows of sharp tapering leaves , shadows of proud leaves _standing erectshadows of humble leaves timidly stooping , shadows of
flowers , laughing among them , some showing their heads gay and brilliant above their green robes , others hiding modestly , or peeping
coquettishly beneath green hoods . And every flower , and every leafas it danced to its shadow on pillars or roofshook down
odours , on my head , or threw them out lavishly to , the breeze to waft them away .
Who is this that enters , so bright with beauty , so radiant with happinessthat music bursts from her lips like song from the
, nightingale ? My daughter , Florence !
Ah ! I should have recognised her taste before in this enchanted place . As a child her gifts were many , and surely as a woman she
has not belied her father's hopes . From stately stem and creeping tendril she culls a nosegay fit
for a queen ' s hand . What taste she shows ! what nice discrimination in her choice ! The softest coloursthe sweetest odours , the
, brightest green—all rapidly arranged by her slender fingers into a brilliant bouquet , and then she passes out . Somehow , she takes
me with her ; through the drawing-room—fit companion for the fairy bower without—up the fantastic staircase , wherelike a fond
, old father , I linger , proudly admiring each evidence of her love for the beautiful—and so into a room filled with rosy light , and
curtained with floating clouds of softest muslin , white and vapoury , where a young man lies on a sofa by the open window .
His cheek is a little pale , but there is nothing to fear ; if he has been illhe is nearly well again now . And he is so handsome , so
, full of life—the frank , joyous , generous life of youth—that who can wonder his young wife looks at him with admiring eyes , and
smiles exultingly as she holds out the flowers ., " I will only have oneFlorence , " he _ssljs" put the rest in your
bosom instead of that ug , ly brooch . Why , , Flo ! how smart you have made yourself to-day ! "
"It is the first day of your getting up , Harry , and I was so glad , that I was obliged to put on a glad gown , and a little dainty
collar , and new white sleeves . In the old grey silk I wore while I sat up those three anxious nights watching youI should not have
, felt glad at all . " . " Ah , Flo , can you only be happy in gay plumage ? The
nightingale and the lark are dressed in sober brown , and yet their song is the happiest of all . "
" Harry ! " answered Florence laughing , " you are a gay bird yourself ; you only praise the sober brown when you are ill . I
wear these bright feathers to please my mate . " Harry caught her handand drew her fair face to his .
The , birds without burst into song , the flowers sent up their
odours , the May blossoms shook in the breeze , and the sunlight
166 A Dream Of Nabonassar.
166 A DREAM OF NABONASSAR .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1862, page 166, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111862/page/22/
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