The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mistress of the Manse, by J. G. Holland

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Title: The Mistress of the Manse

Author: J. G. Holland

Release Date: July 29, 2004 [EBook #13052]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSE ***

Produced by Al Haines

THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSE

BY

J. G. HOLLAND

NEW YORK

SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO

1874

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by

SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG & CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

JOHN V. TROW & SON,

PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS,

205-213 East 12th St.,

NEW YORK.

CONTENTS.

PRELUDE
LOVE'S EXPERIMENTS
LOVE'S PHILOSOPHIES
LOVE'S CONSUMMATIONS

LOVE'S EXPERIMENTS.

I.

A fluttering bevy left the gate
With hurried steps, and sped away;
And then a coach with drooping freight,
Wrapped in its film of dusty gray,
Stopped; and the pastor and his mate

Stepped forth, and passed the waiting door,
And closed it on the gazing street.
"Oh Philip!" She could say no more.
"Oh Mildred! You're at home, my sweet,--
The old life closed: the new before!"

"Dinah, the mistress!" And the maid,
Grown motherly with household care
And loving service, and arrayed
In homely neatness, took the pair
Of small gloved hands held out, and paid

Her low obeisance; then--"this way!"
And when she brought her forth at last,
To him who grudged the long delay,
He found the soil of travel cast,
And Mildred fresh and fair as May.

II

"This is our little Manse," he said.
"Now look with both your curious eyes
Around, above and overhead,
And seeing all things, realize
That they are ours, and we are wed!

"Walk through these freshly garnished rooms--
These halls of oak and tinted pearl--
And mark the cups of clover-blooms,
Cut fresh, to greet the stranger-girl,
By those whose kindliness illumes

The house beyond the grace of flowers!
They greet you, mantled by my name,
And rain their tenderness in showers,--
Responding to the double claim
Of