The bride's fate: The sequel to "The changed brides"Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
General
The bride's fate: The sequel to "The changed brides"
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
American fiction -- 19th century
“Look, look, Drusilla! there is a gipsy telling fortunes at that
carriage next but one to us, on the left. Grandpa, when she has finished
there, do beckon her to come here!” eagerly exclaimed Anna.
“Nonsense, my child! you never want the crone to tell your fortune.”
“Oh, yes, but I do indeed!” exclaimed Anna, excitedly.
“Tut, tut! you don’t believe in such tomfoolery!”
“No, I don’t believe in it of course; but I want to hear what the gipsy
will have to say to me for all that. Do watch her, grandpa; and, as soon
as she has done with those ladies call her here. Consider, I never saw a
gipsy except upon the stage—never saw a real gipsy in my life before,
and may never have a chance of seeing one again. Oh, do call her here,
grandpa, as soon as she is at liberty!”
“Well, well, my dear, you have the right to make a goose of yourself if
you please, and I will help you to do so. I will beckon her presently.”
“Ah, there’s Dick come back! Dick, come here, I want you!” called Anna.
And Dick, who had left his companions among their betting friends and
returned to the hill alone, now came up to the carriage.
“Dick, I’m so glad you’ve come back! There’s a gipsy telling fortunes at
that carriage—I want you to bring her here to tell ours.”
“Absurdity, Anna dear! you cannot mean to countenance such impostors?”
“Oh, Dick, that is so uncharitable! How do you know they are impostors?
How do you know but that they believe in their own art?”
“Do _you_ believe in it?”
“No; but I want to have some fun out of the gipsy.”
“Very well; I consent provided it is meant in jest and not in earnest.”
“And here, Dick, let us put the gipsy’s powers to a test. You come in
and sit down by me—then take little Lenny in your arms and play papa.
Little Lenny being fair and flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, with all the
Lyon features, is much more like me than like his own mother whom in
truth he does not at all resemble, and he will easily be taken for ours.
And the more easily because you and I look as if we had reached years of
discretion, while Drusilla seems but a child. Let us play a trick on the
gipsy, and ask her to foretell _our_ boy’s future.”
“Ha! ha! ha! that will be good!”
Not one word of the conversation since Dick’s return did Drusilla
hear—with her field-glass raised to her eyes, she was gazing at a
particular point on the Grand Stand; for, even in that boundless crowd,
her love had discovered her Alick—but, ah, discovered him among the
desperate gamblers of the betting ring!
She was blind and deaf to everything else.
Meanwhile the gipsy had drawn something nearer to the General’s
barouche. She was in fact standing beside the very next carriage, trying
to wheedle the occupants to have their fortunes told; but they all—a
circle of demure women—sternly warned the sibyl off and threatened her
with the police, at which she laughed and shook her crisp, black curls.
“The police would not trouble a poor gipsy wife like herself,” she said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account