Emmeline, the Orphan of the CastleSmith, Charlotte
General
Emmeline, the Orphan of the Castle
Smith, Charlotte
Gothic fiction; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction; Single women -- Fiction
Mrs. Stafford being then seated, and the servant who had been hired to
attend the infant following her, the coach drove from the door.
Godolphin pursued it with his eyes to the end of the street; and then,
as if deprived of all that made life desirable, he gave himself up to
languor and despondence, afraid of examining his own heart, least his
reason should condemn an inclination, which, however hopeless, he could
not resolve to conquer.
But while he found charms in the indulgence of his unhappy love, he
determined never to disturb the peace of it's object. But rather to
suffer in silence, than to give pain to a heart so generous and sensible
as her's, merely for the melancholy pleasure of knowing that she pitied
him.
As soon as Lady Adelina could bear the journey, they departed together
to his house in the Isle of Wight; where he left her, and went in search
of Mrs. Bancraft, the sister of Trelawny, of whom he enquired where
Trelawny himself might be found.
This woman, apprehensive that he meditated a reconciliation between her
brother and his wife, which it was so much her interest to prevent,
refused for some time to give him the information he desired. Having
however at length convinced her that he had no wish to renew a union
which had been productive only of misery to his sister, she told him
that Mr. Trelawny was returned to England, and lived at a house hired in
the name of her husband, a few miles from London.
There Godolphin sought him; and found the unhappy man sunk into a state
of perpetual and unconscious intoxication; in which Bancraft, the
husband of his sister, encouraged him, foreseeing that it must soon end
in his son's being possessed of an income, to which the meanness of his
own origin, and former condition, made him look forward with anxious
avidity.
It was difficult to make Trelawny, sinking into idiotism, comprehend
either who Godolphin was, or the purport of his business. But Bancraft,
more alive to his own interest, presently understood, that on condition
of his entering into bonds of separation, Lady Adelina would relinquish
the greater part of her claim on the Trelawny estate; and he undertook
to have the deeds signed as soon as they could be drawn up. In a few
days therefore Godolphin saw Trelawny's part of them compleated; and
returned to Lady Adelina, satisfied in having released her from an
engagement, which, since he had seen Trelawny, had rendered her in his
eyes an object of tenderer pity; and in having acquitted himself
according to his strict sense of honour, by causing her to relinquish
all the advantages Trelawny's fortune offered, except those to which she
had an absolute right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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