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
While standing there and enjoying her child’s enjoyment, she saw a
gentleman come forth apparently from a coffee-room below and start to
cross Trafalgar Square; and with a half-suppressed cry she recognized—
Alexander Lyon.
She had been always looking for him—always expecting to see him since
she first set foot in England, yet she had known that her looking was
like the search for a needle in a hay-rick, and her expectations as
extravagant in the first instance as they would be in the last.
And now that she actually saw him walk out from the same house in which
she herself was sojourning, the astonishment and the shock were so
great, that she reeled and held by the window-sill for support.
Without stopping to consider whether the action might be proper or
otherwise, she turned to the waiter who was engaged in taking away the
breakfast service, and beckoned him to her side. He came, his mouth a
little open with wonder.
“Does that gentleman stop here?” she inquired, pointing to Mr. Lyon.
“Lord Killcrichtoun? Yes, ma’am, he stops here,” replied the waiter.
“No, you mistake. You think I mean somebody else; but I mean _that_
gentleman. Look! he is just half across the square now.”
“Just so, ma’am, Lord Killcrichtoun of Killcrichtoun, County of
Sutherland, North Britain. Yes, ma’am, he is here.”
“I am sure you mistake. I allude to the gentleman in gray. Look! now he
lifts his hat and replaces it. There he is passing the corner?”
“Precisely, ma’am. He is up for the Derby, ma’am, begging your pardon.
My lord goes down to Epsom this evening, ma’am. Any more commands,
ma’am?”
“Thanks, no; you may go.”
Drusilla sank down upon the nearest seat, unmindful of the prattling of
her little Lenny, who was still laughing with delight at the broad
absurdities of the puppetshow; for the whole truth flashed on her now.
The young American gentleman who had claimed the barony of
Killcrichtoun, in the right of his mother, was no other than her own
Alick! And he was living under the same roof with her! Did he know that
she was here, or would he find it out? Were the names of all new-comers
registered in open books in English hotels as in American ones? If so,
was it his habit to look at them? What would he think if he saw her name
on the books of the hotel—
“_Mrs. Alexander Lyon, child, and servant._”
Would he happen to see her? Would he wish to see little Lenny? Suppose
he were to meet her—what would he say or do? He might pass her; but
could he pass little Lenny—charming little Lenny—fair-haired, blue-eyed
little Lenny, with his father’s own features and complexion?
It was scarcely possible that he could.
And if he should stop to caress his son, to take him in his arms, to
press him to his heart, what next? Would he stop there, and put the
child away again?
Not likely! for, setting natural affection aside, now that he had a
title, he would want an heir; and what a fine, promising one was this?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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