The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable FamilyThackeray, William Makepeace
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The Newcomes: Memoirs of a Most Respectable Family
Thackeray, William Makepeace
Domestic fiction; Families -- England -- Fiction
Mrs. Mackenzie joked about the transaction (having watched it from the
dining-room windows), and asked the Colonel who his sweetheart was?
Newcome replied very sternly, that he hoped no one would ever speak
lightly of that young lady, whom he loved as his own daughter; and I
thought Rosey looked vexed at the praises thus bestowed. This was the
day before we all went down to Brighton. Miss Honeyman’s lodgings were
taken for Mr. Binnie and his ladies. Clive and her dearest Colonel had
apartments next door. Charles Honeyman came down and preached one of
his very best sermons. Fred Bayham was there, and looked particularly
grand and noble on the pier and the cliff. I am inclined to think he
had had some explanation with Thomas Newcome, which had placed F. B. in
a state of at least temporary prosperity. Whom did he not benefit whom
he knew, and what eye that saw him did not bless him? F. B. was greatly
affected at Charles’s sermon, of which our party of course could see
the allusions. Tears actually rolled down his brown cheeks; for Fred
was a man very easily moved, and, as it were, a softened sinner. Little
Rosey and her mother sobbed audibly, greatly to the surprise of stout
old Miss Honeyman, who had no idea of such watery exhibitions, and to
the discomfiture of poor Newcome, who was annoyed to have his praises
even hinted in that sacred edifice. Good Mr. James Binnie came for once
to church; and, however variously their feelings might be exhibited or,
repressed, I think there was not one of the little circle there
assembled who did not bring to the place a humble prayer and a gentle
heart. It was the last Sabbath-bell our dear friend was to hear for
many a day on his native shore. The great sea washed the beach as we
came out, blue with the reflection of the skies, and its innumerable
waves crested with sunshine. I see the good man and his boy yet
clinging to him, as they pace together by the shore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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