An Outcast; Or, Virtue and FaithAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
An Outcast; Or, Virtue and Faith
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
Conduct of life -- Fiction; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Vice -- Fiction
There is, notwithstanding all these
ovations in honor of her coming, a mystery hanging over her periodical
visits, for the sharp-eyed persist that they have seen her disguised,
and in suspicious places, making singular inquiries about a woman of the
name of Mag Munday. And these suspicions have given rise to whisperings,
and these whisperings have crept into the ears of several very old and
highly-respectable "first families," which said families have suddenly
dropped her acquaintance. But what is more noticeable in the features of
Madame Montford, is the striking similarity between them and Anna
Bonard's. Her most fervent admirers have noticed it; while strangers
have not failed to discover it, and to comment upon it. And the girl who
sits in the box with Mr. Snivel, so cautiously fortifying herself with
the curtain, is none other than Anna. Mr. Snivel has brought her here as
an atonement for past injuries.
Just as the curtain is about to rise, Mr. McArthur, true to his word,
may be seen toddling to the stage door, his treasure carefully tied up
in a handkerchief. He will deliver it to no one but the manager, and in
spite of his other duties that functionary is compelled to receive it in
person. This done, the old man, to the merriment of certain wags who
delight to speculate on his childlike credulity, takes a seat in the
parquette, wipes clean his venerable spectacles, and placing them
methodically over his eyes, forms a unique picture in the foreground of
the audience. McArthur, with the aid of his glasses, can recognize
objects at a distance; and as the Hamlet of the night is decidedly
Teutonic in his appearance and pronunciation, he has no great relish for
the Star, nor a hand of applause to bestow on his genius. Hamlet, he is
sure, never articulated with a coarse brogue. So turning from the stage,
he amuses himself with minutely scanning the faces of the audience, and
resolving in his mind that something will turn up in the grave-digger's
scene, of which he is an enthusiastic admirer. It is, indeed, he thinks
to himself, very doubtful, whether in this wide world the much-abused
William Shakspeare hath a more ardent admirer of this curious but
faithful illustration of his genius. Suddenly his attention seems
riveted on the private box, in which sits the stately figure of Madame
Montford, flanked in a half-circle by her perfumed and white-gloved
admirers. "What!" exclaims the old man, in surprise, rubbing and
replacing his glasses, "if I'm not deceived! Well--I can't be. If there
isn't the very woman, a little altered, who has several times looked
into my little place of an evening. Her questions were so curious that I
couldn't make out what she really wanted (she never bought anything);
but she always ended with inquiring about poor Mag Munday. People think
because I have all sorts of things, that I must know about all sorts of
things. I never could tell her much that satisfied her, for Mag, report
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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