The bride's fate: The sequel to "The changed brides"Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
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The bride's fate: The sequel to "The changed brides"
Southworth, Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte
American fiction -- 19th century
“It is all, missus—every bit. I have told you not only all that
happened, but all I seed and heard and even thought.”
“Now then for action,” said the young mother, rising with a new-born
resolution and ringing the bell.
The waiter answered it.
“Order a cab for me immediately, and come and let me know when it is at
the door,” she said.
And when the man went away to do her bidding she turned to Pina and
said:
“Stop crying and do as I direct you. Go to my room and bring me here my
bonnet, gloves and mantle.”
Pina, still sobbing, went to obey.
“And now, Anna, if you wish to accompany me, go and get ready quickly. I
have something to do in the meanwhile.”
“Where are you going, Drusilla?” inquired Mrs. Hammond, wondering to see
the agonized young mother take the direction of affairs with so much
firmness.
“I am going to institute a search for little Lenny. I must find him
before I sleep. Use your pleasure, Anna dear, in going with me, or
staying at home.”
“I shall go with you most certainly,” said Mrs. Hammond, leaving the
room to prepare for her ride.
Meanwhile Drusilla sat down to her writing desk, and wrote off rapidly
disjointed paragraphs on several sheets of paper.
Anna returned ready for her drive, and found Drusilla thus occupied.
“What in the world are you doing, my dear?” inquired Mrs. Hammond.
“Preparing slips of paper that may, or may not, be wanted; for no time
must be lost. See, here is a telegram to be sent to uncle at
Southampton, if necessary. Here are a dozen copies of an advertisement,
descriptive of little Lenny’s person and dress, and of the circumstances
of his disappearance, and the reward offered for his restoration, to be
put, if required, into to-morrow’s papers. Still I hope that none of
these things need be done. We must drive first to Mivart’s where
Alexander stops, or did stop, and see if he is still there, and if he
has the child in his possession. If we find that Lenny is safe with his
father, then it will be all right, for I feel sure that my boy will be
amused and happy for a little while, and then he will want to come home
to me, and Alick will never be so cruel as to keep him from his mother.
But if we do not find him with Alick, then we must send this telegram
immediately to Southampton to summon uncle back to town; and we must
have this advertisement inserted in all the papers, and posted all over
London; and we must employ the whole detective police force, or as many
of it as we can procure, to prosecute the search——It is time the cab
were here. I wish it would come,” said Drusilla, touching the bell.
“Good Heaven, Drusilla! how you do astonish me! Who would have believed
that you—a young and delicate woman, a doting and anxious mother—could
have displayed so much coolness and resolution in such an hour of trial
and suffering,” exclaimed Anna, in genuine admiration.
“Ah, Anna! if experience has disciplined me in anything, it has
disciplined me in self-control.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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