The English Orphans; Or, A Home in the New WorldHolmes, Mary Jane
General
The English Orphans; Or, A Home in the New World
Holmes, Mary Jane
Orphans -- Fiction
Mrs. Campbell of course consented to this, adding that she had secured
the services of a highly accomplished lady as governess for Ella, and
proposing that Rose and Jenny, instead of accompanying their mother to
the city as usual, should remain with her during the winter, and share
Ella's advantages. To this proposition, Mrs. Lincoln readily assented,
and while Mary, from habitual exercise both indoors and out, was
growing more and more healthful and vigorous, Rose Lincoln, who was
really delicate, was drooping day by day, and growing paler and paler
in the closely heated school-room, where a breath of fresh air rarely
found entrance, as the "accomplished governess" could not endure it.
Daily were her pupils lectured upon the necessity of shielding
themselves from the winter winds, which were sure "to impart such a
rough, blowzy appearance to their complexion."
Rose profited well by this advice, and hardly any thing could tempt
her into the open air, unless it were absolutely necessary. All day
long she half reclined upon a small sofa, which at her request was
drawn close to the stove, and even then complaining of being chilly
she sometimes sat with her shawl thrown over her shoulders. Jenny, on
the contrary, fanned herself furiously at the farthest corner of the
room, frequently managing to open the window slyly, and regale herself
with the snow which lay upon the sill. Often, too, when her lessons
were over for the day, she would bound away, and after a walk of a
mile or so, would return to the house with her cheeks glowing, and her
eyes sparkling like stars. Burnishing a striking contrast to her pale,
sickly sister, who hovered over the stove, shivering if a window were
raised, or a door thrown open.
In the course of the winter Mrs. Lincoln came up to visit her
daughters, expressing herself much pleased with Rose's improved looks
and manners. "Her complexion was so pure" she said, "so different from
what it was when she came from Mount Holyoke."
Poor Jenny, who, full of life and spirits came rushing in to see her
mother, was cut short in her expression of joy by being called "a
perfect bunch of fat!"
"Why, Jenny, what does make you so red and coarse?" said the
distressed mother. "I know you eat too much," and before Mrs. Lincoln
went home, she gave her daughter numerous lectures concerning her
diet; but it only made matters worse; and when six weeks after, Mrs.
Lincoln came again she found that Jenny had not only gained five
pounds, but that hardly one of her dresses would meet!
"Mercy me!" said she, the moment her eye fell upon Jenny's round,
plump cheeks, and fat shoulders, "you are as broad as you are long.
What a figure you would cut in Boston!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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