The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — CompleteSmollett, T. (Tobias)
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The Adventures of Ferdinand Count Fathom — Complete
Smollett, T. (Tobias)
Adventure stories; Gothic fiction
The poor afflicted orphan, worn to a shadow with self-consuming
anguish, eager to find some lowly retreat, where she could breath out
her soul in peace, and terrified at the frantic behaviour of Renaldo,
communicated to Fathom her desire of removing, and begged that he would
take a small picture of her father, decorated with diamonds, and
convert them into money, for the expense of her subsistence. This was
the last pledge of her family, which she had received from her mother,
who had preserved it in the midst of numberless distresses, and no
other species of misery but that which she groaned under could have
prevailed upon the daughter to part with it; but, exclusive of other
motives, the very image itself, by recalling to her mind the honours of
her name, upbraided her with living in dependence upon a man who had
treated her with such indignity and ingratitude; besides, she flattered
herself with the hope that she should not long survive the loss of this
testimonial.
Our adventurer, with many professions of sorrow and mortification at
his own want of capacity to prevent such an alienation, undertook to
dispose of it to the best advantage, and to provide her with a cheap
and retired apartment, to which he would conduct her in safety, though
at the hazard of his life. In the meantime, however, he repaired to his
friend Renaldo, and, after having admonished him to arm his soul with
patience and philosophy, declared that Monimia’s guilty passion for
himself could no longer be kept within bounds, that she had conjured
him, in the most pressing manner, to assist her in escaping from an
house which she considered as the worst of dungeons, because she was in
it daily exposed to the sight and company of a man whom she detested,
and that she had bribed him to compliance with her request, not only
with repeated promises of eternal love and submission, but also with
the picture of her father set with diamonds, which she had hitherto
reserved as the last and greatest testimony of her affection and
esteem.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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