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64 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
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.
Mrs. Henry Wood's Dstovels. The Four Com...
talking three house b young 1 y to a her dairymaid 1 gentlemen sweetheart , who ; " , she but sai did d as , she not it was was notice nearl sure which it y dark was . After and _" one she a of fruit was the - *
less inquiry , therefore , John Massingberd is allowed to go off to the diggings , and Frederick , marrying Sybilla Westfollows him with
, his young bride , hoping to find some means of livelihood in a more settled part of the colony . Lionel spends some months in Paris ,
and then returns to Verner's Pride , where , to his great distress , he finds his uncle wholly changed to him , nor can he ever discover ,
nor does he even suspect the cause , which evidently is that old Mr . Verner has seen reason to affix the stain of the suicide , or
possible murder , upon him . The old man actually makes a will leaving his property to John , andfailing him , to Frederick
, Massingberd , the estate not to revert to Lionel until the death of the other heirs . But he is persuaded by his lawyer and an old friend
to revoke this extraordinary document on the eve of his death , by a codicil , disposing of his estate to Lionel ; protesting , however ,
as he does so , that it is solely from their remonstrances and a senseof justice to his dead brother , Sir Lionel , in whose shoes he himself *
may be said to have stood . Mr . Verner dies , and his will is read ,, —his willbut not the codicil , whichwhen frantically sought for by
the lawyer , , is nowhere to be found , ! and Lionel learns , to hisintense amazement and chagrin , that a Verner is no longer
masterof Verner's Pride . His troubles are , however , short-lived , for first comes the account of John Massingberd ' s death by violence at the
diggings , written home by Luke Roy , his servant , the son of the bailiff ; and then follows a letter from Sybilla , telling how Frederick
had died of fever , a day _' s journey from Melbourne , and had been buried there by his friend Captain Cannonby . So Lionel reigns in
his own right , and makes love to a pretty young , lady living with his mother , Lady Verner , but not until he has had a dreadful fever
caused partly by his trouble about the will , and more by his loss of ' Sybilla West , of whom he had been a rejected suitor . The pretty
young lady nurses him in his convalescence , and consoles him for the griefs of his heart , and one morning Lionel is surprised by his
feelings , and makes a half declaration of his second love . But that same evening , when Lionel , seated at his solitary dessert
at-Verner's Pride , is meditating on his future happy prospects , a fly drives up to the door , and from it steps—Sybilla
Westthe-, widowed Mrs . Massingberd , more enchantingly pretty than ever , liev golden curls showering down over her black dress , appealing *
to every fibre of Lionel ' s heart . Sybilla had expected to find Mrs . Verner at her old home , but that good lady was no
longeralive ; she then asks Lionel to take her in , at all events for the night , reminding him that the house and estate would have been her
husband ' s if he had lived ; she cries from fatigue and shivers from the cold , and plays her cards so well that before an hour is over ,..
Lionel has clasped her to his breast as his affianced wife , and goes-
64 Notices Of Books.
64 NOTICES OF BOOKS .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 2, 1863, page 64, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_02031863/page/64/
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