The ghost of Charlotte Cray, and other storiesMarryat, Florence
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The ghost of Charlotte Cray, and other stories
Marryat, Florence
English fiction -- 19th century; Ghost stories, English; Short stories, English
We made an expedition once, by the new railroad, to Moron, a very old
town perched on an almost perpendicular rock and visible for miles
distant. The heat was intense, but we toiled manfully up the steep and
execrably-paved street from the station, and, weary and footsore, were
thankful to find ourselves within the cool walls of the fine old
church. It possesses some valuable Murillos--one of which,
representing the head of our Blessed Lord, is especially beautiful.
The altar-rails, screen and reredos are all richly gilt, and the
sacristan, taking us into the vestry, unlocked several massively
carved chests, which disclosed some valuable plate and precious
stones; referring to which, he boasted, with pardonable pride, that
Utrera could not produce anything half so handsome. And indeed the
inhabitants of Moron may well congratulate themselves on these
treasures having escaped the grasp of the French during the war, for
the sacristan related to us how everything had been hidden away and
miraculously preserved from the hands of the spoiler.
But my chit-chat is drawing to a close. It was not without a certain
regret that we bade farewell to Utrera, for during the whole of our
stay there we had experienced nothing but kindness from all with whom
we had come in contact, and the memory of our sojourn in that little,
out-of-the-way Andalusian town, if not fraught with brilliant
recollections, will, at all events, take its rank with that portion of
the past which has been too peaceful to rise up again to trouble us.
And it were well if we could say the same for every part of our
storm-ridden lives.
THE SECRET OF ECONOMY.
Apparently, there has been much to say and write lately upon
domestic economy. From the time, indeed, that the question of the
possibility of marriage upon three hundred a-year was mooted, the
subject has never fairly been dropped.
Men, with incomes of less than three hundred a-year, do not seem to
like the idea that they are bound in consequence to renounce all
thoughts of matrimony, and inquiries respecting the matter from
aggrieved bachelors are constantly cropping up in those corners of the
weekly papers devoted to correspondence. They have even gone so far
lately as to suggest, since it seems impossible in this century of
riots and rinderpest to curtail one’s expenses, whether it may not be
both lawful and feasible to curtail one’s family.
The question of, on how much, or on how little, a certain number of
persons can exist, is certainly one which affects the mass, but which,
to be answered with fairness, must be put individually. There are
women and women. What one housekeeper can accomplish on three hundred
a-year, another cannot effect on three thousand, for it is not
incompatible with many luxuries to possess very little comfort; and
comfort is, after all, the essence of domestic felicity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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