'Wooed and married and a'.

' 'Edith!' said Margaret, gently, 'Edith!'

But, as Margaret half suspected, Edith had fallen asleep. She lay

curled up on the sofa in the back drawing-room in Harley Street,

looking very lovely in her white muslin and blue ribbons. If

Titania had ever been dressed in white muslin and blue ribbons,

and had fallen asleep on a crimson damask sofa in a back

drawing-room, Edith might have been taken for her. Margaret was

struck afresh by her cousin's beauty. They had grown up together

from childhood, and all along Edith had been remarked upon by

every one, except Margaret, for her prettiness; but Margaret had

never thought about it until the last few days, when the prospect

of soon losing her companion seemed to give force to every sweet

quality and charm which Edith possessed.

They had been talking

about wedding dresses, and wedding ceremonies; and Captain

Lennox, and what he had told Edith about her future life at

Corfu, where his regiment was stationed; and the difficulty of

keeping a piano in good tune (a difficulty which Edith seemed to

consider as one of the most formidable that could befall her in

her married life), and what gowns she should want in the visits

to Scotland, which would immediately succeed her marriage; but

the whispered tone had latterly become more drowsy; and Margaret,

after a pause of a few minutes, found, as she fancied, that in

spite of the buzz in the next room, Edith had rolled herself up

into a soft ball of muslin and ribbon, and silken curls, and gone

off into a peaceful little after-dinner nap.

Margaret had been on the point of telling her cousin of some of

the plans and visions which she entertained as to her future life

in the country parsonage, where her father and mother lived; and

where her bright holidays had always been passed, though for the

last ten years her aunt Shaw's house had been considered as her

home. But in default of a listener, she had to brood over the

change in her life silently as heretofore. It was a happy

brooding, although tinged with regret at being separated for an

indefinite time from her gentle aunt and dear cousin. As she

thought of the delight of filling the important post of only

daughter in Helstone parsonage, pieces of the conversation out of

the next room came upon her ears. Her aunt Shaw was talking to

the five or six ladies who had been dining there, and whose

husbands were still in the dining-room. They were the familiar

acquaintances of the house; neighbours whom Mrs. Shaw called

friends, because she happened to dine with them more frequently

than with any other people, and because if she or Edith wanted

anything from them, or they from her, they did not scruple to

make a call at each other's houses before luncheon. These ladies

and their husbands were invited, in their capacity of friends, to

eat a farewell dinner in honour of Edith's approaching marriage.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024