The Duchess of Rosemary Lane: A NovelFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
The Duchess of Rosemary Lane: A Novel
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
English fiction -- 19th century
But a short distance from the country place in which Seth Dumbrick and
the children of his adoption spent their holiday, is a pretty and
comfortable residence standing in its own grounds. Here lives Nelly
Marston and her daughter, no longer bearing the name of the Duchess of
Rosemary Lane, but the more simple and natural one of Kate. Happily
the faults of our young heroine are not uneradicable, and under the
loving ministration of her devoted mother she is gradually developing
a sweetness and simplicity of nature which will bear good fruit in the
future. The long-suffering mother is happy beyond her wildest hopes,
and night and morning she bends her knees in gratitude, and offers up
prayers of thankfulness for the life of love she is enjoying. That she
is enabled to live this life in ease and comfort is due to Arthur
Temple, who, having some private fortune of his own through a legacy
left to him in childhood, is able in this way to make some
compensation to the trusting woman whom his father betrayed. He comes
to the happy home at intervals, and calls Kate his sister, and pays to
Kates' mother a respect in which something of reverence finds a place.
To this home, also, every fortnight, come Seth Dumbrick and Sally,
from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning, and at rarer intervals
Nelly Marston and her daughter pay visits to Rosemary Lane, and pass
happy hours in Seth's cellar.
So much for the present. What lies in the future?
It may be that Arthur Temple and his father may become reconciled, but
the old ties are broken, and in the son's future the father shall play
no part. The father's head is no longer erect and proud: his sin has
found him out, and his dearest hopes are crushed. It is just.
It may be that our heroine may meet with a man who will woo her
honourably, and that when she has children of her own, the better
lessons which her mother is imparting will prove to be indeed the best
blessing which could fall to her lot.
But it cannot be that Nelly Marston's happiness shall be greater than
it is at present. It is full and perfect, and the past is atoned for.
Despite the verdict which too censorious people might pass upon her,
Nelly Marston's home is a home of innocence and virtue.
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Duchess of Rosemary Lane, by B. L. Farjeon
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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