FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>  
eautiful our Emmy looked--I hate the broad Scotch Aamy--how bright her flashing eyes, and how fragrantly the orange-blossoms clustered in her rich brown hair; let him speak lengthily, whose province it may be to spin three volumes out of one: for me, I always wish to recollect that readers possess, on the average, at least as much imagination as writers. And why should you not exercise it now? Is not Emmy in her bridal-dress a theme well worth a revery? For a similar reason, I must clearly disappoint feminine expectation, by forbearing to descant upon Charles's slight but manly form, and his Grecian beauty, &c., all the better for the tropics, and the trials and the troubles he had passed. When Captain Forbes, just sitting down to his soup in the Jamaica Coffee-house, read in the _Morning Post_, the marriage of Charles Tracy with Amy Stuart, he delivered himself mentally as follows: "There now! Poets talk of 'love,' and I stick to 'human nature.' When that fine young fellow sailed with me, hardly a year ago, in the Sir William Elphinston, he was over head and heels in love with old Jack Tracy's pretty girl, Emily Warren: but I knew it wouldn't last long: I don't believe in constancy for longer than a week. It does one's heart good to see how right one is; here's what I call proof. My sentimental spark kisses Emily Warren, and marries Amy Stuart." The captain, happier than before, called complacently for Cayenne pepper, and relished his mock-turtle with a higher gusto. It is worth recording, that the same change of name mystified slanderous friends in the Presidency of Madras. And now, kind-eyed reader, this story of '_The Twins_' must leave off abruptly at the wedding. As in its companion-tale, '_The Crock of Gold_,' one grand thesis for our thoughts was that holy wise command, "Thou shall not covet," and as its other comrade '_Heart_' is founded on "Thou shalt not bear false witness," so in this, the seed-corn of the crop, were five pure words, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Other morals doubtless grew up round us, for all virtue hangs together in a bunch: the harms of secresy, false witness, inordinate affections, and red murder: but in chief, as we have said. Moreover, I wish distinctly to make known, for dear "domestic" sake, that so far from our lovers' happiness having been consummated (that is, finished) in the honey-moon--it was only then begun. How long they are to live thus happily together, Hea
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   >>  



Top keywords:

Stuart

 

witness

 

Warren

 

Charles

 

thoughts

 

companion

 
wedding
 

abruptly

 

thesis

 

happier


captain

 

called

 
complacently
 

pepper

 

Cayenne

 

marries

 

kisses

 
sentimental
 
relished
 

Presidency


friends

 
slanderous
 

Madras

 
reader
 
mystified
 

higher

 

turtle

 

recording

 
change
 

domestic


happiness

 

lovers

 

Moreover

 

distinctly

 

happily

 

finished

 

consummated

 

murder

 

commit

 
comrade

founded

 
adultery
 

secresy

 

inordinate

 
affections
 

virtue

 

doubtless

 

morals

 
command
 

exercise