The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 350: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a e 342 THE STRING OF PEARLS. lq Yes, Arabeila Wilmot is in love with Colonel Jeffery ; and small blame to w ‘her, as they say in Ireland, for is he not a gentleman in the true acceptation of su the term? Not a manufactured gentleman, but one of nature’s gentlemen. n0 You will have promised, my dear what’s-your-name, that Arabella, to herself even, has hardly confessed her feelings; but still they are creeping | upon her most insidiously as such feelings somehow or other will andido \ creep. To be sure, if any one were to stop her in the street or any where else to say, | Arabella, you are in love with Colonel Jeffery,” she would say—‘ No, no i no !”? many times over. : . \ But yet it is true. o | ‘* You read it in her glistening eyes, f y And thus alone should love be read: f She says it in her gentle sighs, n | And thus alone should love be said.’ | ‘After this, who will be hardy enough, my dear, to dispute the fact with you | fe and I? | Sif ' And nov we will watch her, ay, that we will, and see how she will Re | me behave herself under such trying circumstances. cal _ Colonel Jeffery advanced,.and as in duty and gallantry called upon, he, after ) : slightly bowing to the gentlemen, spoke to Arabella. | _ ©Thisis an unexpected pleasure, Miss Wilmot,” he said. “1 hope J see ) gu you well. Here is a seat close at hand. May I have the pleasure of con- | ear ducting you to it ?”’ ‘ be “ Johanna is—is—is —” stammered Arabella. ‘* Well, I hope,” interposed the colonel. = ‘* Oh, no—no—that is, yes.” : = _ The colonel looked puzzled. He was not a econjurer, and so might look puzzled, if he looked like any ordinary man, who hears any one say no, and yes ae in the same breath, withont any injury to his reputation. | | ‘* Mr. Ben,” said Sir Richard Blunt, ‘‘ I have something for your private ear, if you will just step on with me.” | ‘ My private ear?” said Ben with a confused look, as if he would have th hiked to add; ‘* which is that ?’’ al ‘““Yes. This way if you please.” | lo Ben walked on with the magistrate, and Colonel Jeffery was alone with) | an ‘Arabella Wilmot. Yes, alone with the one person who insensibly had crept | into her affections Alas! Is the pure love of that young creature scattered fix to the winds? Is she one of those who drag about them in this world the | | heavy chain ‘of unrequited affection? We shallsee. Arabella had permitted | of the colonel to hand her to one of the garden-seats near at hand. How could} | Yo ‘she prevent him ? If he had chosen instead to hand her into the river it would | | Te ad ne RE rr pie RE - en ee ie have been just the same, and she would have gone. He led her by that wreath|| i of flowers which in old Arcadia was first linked by Cupid, and which, in all > | oy time since, has wound itself around the hearts of all the boy-gorl’s victims. wit ‘‘ Miss Wilmot,” said the colonel, and now his voice faltered a little, “! and _ have much wished to see you.” Ci) ‘Very fine, indeed,” said Arrabella. ‘ You said something about the i weather, did you not ?” : | “‘ Not exactly,’’ he said ; ‘* I had much wished to sée you.” fo) “Met: | | * Yes, and to begin at the beginning, you know [—I ~loved Johanna Oakley. 8 | Yes, I loved her.” | , 7 ‘ || Yes—yes.”’ per | “] loved her for her beauty, and for the gentle and the chivalrous de- ‘ votion of her character, you understand. I loved her for the very tears she 6 shed for another, and for the very constancy with which she clung to the ny comicbooks.com