FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  
d told Mr. Mannion, when I was leaving him on the night of the storm, that I would treat his offers as the offers of a friend; and I had now made good my words, much sooner and much more unreservedly than I had ever intended, when we parted at his own house-door. V. The autumn was now over; the winter--a cold, gloomy winter--had fairly come. Five months had nearly elapsed since Clara and my father had departed for the country. What communication did I hold with them, during that interval? No personal communication with either--written communication only with my sister. Clara's letters to me were frequent. They studiously avoided anything like a reproach for my long absence; and were confined almost exclusively to such details of country life as the writer thought likely to interest me. Their tone was as affectionate--nay, more affectionate, if possible--than usual; but Clara's gaiety and quiet humour, as a correspondent, were gone. My conscience taught me only too easily and too plainly how to account for this change--my conscience told me who had altered the tone of my sister's letters, by altering all the favourite purposes and favourite pleasures of her country life. I was selfishly enough devoted to my own passions and my own interests, at this period of my life; but I was not so totally dead to every one of the influences which had guided me since childhood, as to lose all thought of Clara and my father, and the ancient house that was associated with my earliest and happiest recollections. Sometimes, even in Margaret's beloved presence, a thought of Clara put away from me all other thoughts. And, sometimes, in the lonely London house, I dreamed--with the strangest sleeping oblivion of my marriage, and of all the new interests which it had crowded into my life--of country rides with my sister, and of quiet conversations in the old gothic library at the Hall. Under such influences as these, I twice resolved to make amends for my long absence, by joining my father and my sister in the country, even though it were only for a few days--and, each time, I failed in my resolution. On the second occasion, I had actually mustered firmness enough to get as far as the railway station; and only at the last moment faltered and hung back. The struggle that it cost me to part for any length of time from Margaret, I had overcome; but the apprehension, as vivid as it was vague, that something--I knew not what--might happen t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132  
133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

country

 

sister

 
thought
 
father
 

communication

 
conscience
 

winter

 
letters
 

affectionate

 

absence


interests
 

favourite

 

offers

 

influences

 

Margaret

 

ancient

 

sleeping

 

marriage

 

guided

 

childhood


oblivion
 

lonely

 
thoughts
 

Sometimes

 

presence

 
crowded
 

recollections

 

happiest

 

London

 

dreamed


beloved

 

earliest

 

strangest

 

amends

 

faltered

 
struggle
 

moment

 

railway

 

station

 

happen


length

 

overcome

 

apprehension

 

firmness

 

mustered

 
resolved
 
library
 

conversations

 
gothic
 

joining