Out in the Forty-Five: Duncan Keith's VowHolt, Emily Sarah
General
Out in the Forty-Five: Duncan Keith's Vow
Holt, Emily Sarah
Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Jacobite Rebellion, 1745-1746 -- Juvenile fiction
"Well, my dear, we will see," said my Aunt Kezia; and I think she was
pleased with Sophy too. Hatty declared that Bracewell would just suit
her, and she would not stay at any price, if she had leave to choose.
So it seems to be settled in that way. Fanny will be married on the
30th,--that is three weeks hence; and the week after, Hatty goes with
the Bracewells, and I with Flora, to their own homes; and my Aunt Kezia
and Sophy will remain here, and only leave the house on the evening
before the marriage.
It seems very odd that Father should have wished not to have us at his
wedding. Was it Cecilia who did not wish it? But I am not to call her
Cecilia any more.
When my cousins came in for tea, they were told too. Charlotte cried,
"Well, I never!" for which piece of vulgarity she was sharply pulled up
by my Aunt Kezia. Amelia fanned herself--she always does, whatever time
of year it may be--and languidly remarked, "Dear!" Angus said, "Castor
and Pollux!" for which he also got rebuked. And after a sort of "Oh!"
Flora said nothing, but looked very sorrowfully at us. Cec--I mean Miss
Osborne--did not appear at all until tea was nearly over, and then she
came in from the garden, and Mr Parmenter with her, that everlasting
eyeglass stuck in his eye. I do so dislike the man.
Father never comes to tea. He says it is only women's rubbish, and
laughs at Ephraim Hebblethwaite because he says he likes it. I fancy
few men drink tea. My Uncle Charles never does, I know; but my Aunt
Dorothea says she could not exist a day without tea and cards.
I wonder if it will be pleasant to stay with my Aunt Dorothea. I
believe she and my Uncle Charles are living in London now. I should
like dearly to see London, and the fine shops, and the lions in the
Tower, and Ranelagh, and all the grand people. And yet, somehow, I feel
just a little bit uneasy about it, as if I were going into some place
where I did not know what I should find, and it might be something that
would hurt me. I do not feel that about Abbotscliff. I expect it will
be pleasant there, only perhaps rather dull. And I want to see my Uncle
Drummond, and Flora's friend, Annas Keith. I wonder if she is like her
brother. And I never saw a Presbyterian minister, nor indeed a minister
of any sort. I do hope my Uncle Drummond will not be like Mr Bagnall,
and I hope all the gentlemen in the South are not like that odious Mr
Parmenter.
Flora seems very much pleased about my going back with her. I do not
know why, but I fancied Angus did not quite like it. Can he be afraid
of my telling his father the story of the hunt-supper? He knows nothing
of what I heard up on the Scar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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