Family Pride; Or, Purified by SufferingHolmes, Mary Jane
General
Family Pride; Or, Purified by Suffering
Holmes, Mary Jane
American fiction; Dime novels
Many discussions had been held at the elder Cameron's concerning its
name, Mrs. Cameron deciding finally that it should bear her own,
Margaret Augusta, while Juno advocated that of Rose Marie, inasmuch as
their new clergyman would Frenchify the pronunciation so perfectly,
rolling the "_r_," and placing so much accent on the last syllable. At
this the Father Cameron swore as cussed nonsense--"better call it
Jemima, a grand sight, than saddle it with such a silly name as Rose
Mah-ree, with a roll to the 'r,'" and with another oath the disgusted
old man departed, while Bell suggested that Katy might wish to have a
voice in naming her own child.
This was a possibility that had formed no part of Mrs. Cameron's
thoughts, or Juno's. Of course Katy would acquiesce in whatever Wilford
said was best, and he always thought as they did. Consequently there
would be no trouble whatever. It was time the child had a name--time it
wore the elegant christening robe, Mrs. Cameron's gift, which cost more
money than would have fed a hungry family for weeks. The matter must be
decided, and so with a view of deciding it a family dinner party was
held at No. ---- Fifth Avenue, the day succeeding the call on Marian
Hazleton.
Very pure and beautiful Katy looked as she once more took her old place
in the chair they called hers at Father Cameron's, because it was the
one she had always preferred to any other--a large, motherly
easy-chair, which took in nearly the whole of her petite figure, and
against whose soft cushioned back she leaned her curly head with a
pretty air of importance, as after dinner was over, she came back to the
parlor with the other ladies, waiting for the gentlemen to join them,
when they were to talk up baby's name.
Katy knew exactly what it would be called, but as Wilford had never
asked her, she was keeping it a secret, not doubting that the others
would be quite as much delighted as herself with the novel name,
"Genevra." Not long before her illness she had read an English story,
which had in it a Genevra, and she had at once seized upon it as the
most delightful cognomen a person could well possess. "Genevra Cameron!"
She had repeated it to herself many a time as she sat with her baby on
her lap. She had written it on sundry slips of paper, which had
afterward found their way into the grate; and once she had scratched
with her diamond ring upon the window pane in her dressing-room, where
it now stood in legible characters, "Genevra Cameron!" There should be
no middle name to take from the sweetness of the first--only
Genevra--that was sufficient; and the little lady tapped her foot
impatiently upon the carpet, wishing Wilford and father would hurry and
come in.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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