England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
"Leave your business in my hands," said the lawyer, on the journey to
town, "and go and amuse yourself on the Continent. I can't blame you for
falling in love with Miss Restall; I ought to have foreseen the danger,
and waited till she had left us before I invited you to my house. But I
may at least warn you to carry the matter no further. If you had eight
thousand instead of eight hundred a year, Mr. Restall would think it an
act of presumption on your part to aspire to his daughter's hand, unless
you had a title to throw into the bargain. Look at it in the true
light, my dear boy; and one of these days you will thank me for speaking
plainly."
Cosway promised to "look at it in the true light."
The result, from his point of view, led him into a change of residence.
He left his hotel and took a lodging in the nearest bystreet to Mr.
Restall's palace at Kensington.
On the same evening he applied (with the confidence due to a previous
arrangement) for a letter at the neighboring post-office, addressed to
E. C.--the initials of Edwin Cosway. "Pray be careful," Miss Restall
wrote; "I have tried to get you a card for our garden party. But that
hateful creature, Margery, has evidently spoken to my father; I am not
trusted with any invitation cards. Bear it patiently, dear, as I do, and
let me hear if you have succeeded in finding a lodging near us."
Not submitting to this first disappointment very patiently, Cosway sent
his reply to the post-office, addressed to A. R.--the initials of Adela
Restall. The next day the impatient lover applied for another letter. It
was waiting for him, but it was not directed in Adela's handwriting.
Had their correspondence been discovered? He opened the letter in the
street; and read, with amazement, these lines:
"Dear Mr. Cosway, my heart sympathizes with two faithful lovers, in
spite of my age and my duty. I inclose an invitation to the party
tomorrow. Pray don't betray me, and don't pay too marked attention to
Adela. Discretion is easy. There will be twelve hundred guests. Your
friend, in spite of appearances, Louisa Margery."
How infamously they had all misjudged this excellent woman! Cosway went
to the party a grateful, as well as a happy man. The first persons
known to him, whom he discovered among the crowd of strangers, were
the Athertons. They looked, as well they might, astonished to see him.
Fidelity to Mrs. Margery forbade him to enter into any explanations.
Where was that best and truest friend? With some difficulty he succeeded
in finding her. Was there any impropriety in seizing her hand and
cordially pressing it? The result of this expression of gratitude was,
to say the least of it, perplexing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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