The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 1 of 5)Burney, Fanny
History
The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 1 of 5)
Burney, Fanny
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Refugees -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Refugees -- Fiction; War stories
The Wanderer obtained a direction to the house of Mrs Maple, from a
servant; and demanded another to Titchfield Street. To the latter she
rapidly bent her steps; but, there arrived, her haste ended in
disappointment and perplexity. She discovered the apartment in which,
with her husband and child, the lady whom she sought had resided; but it
was no longer inhabited; and she could not trace whether her friend had
set off for Brighthelmstone, or had only changed her lodging. After a
melancholy and fruitless search, she repaired, though with feet and a
mind far less eager, to Upper Brooke Street, where she soon read the
name of Mrs Maple upon the door of one of the capital houses. She
enquired for Miss Joddrel, and begged that young lady might be told,
that a person who came over in the same boat with her from France,
requested the honour of admission.
To this message she presently heard the voice of Elinor, from the
landing-place, answer, 'O, she's come at last! Bring her up Tomlinson,
bring her up!'
'Yes, Ma'am; but I'll promise you she is none of the person you have
been expecting.'
'How can you tell that Tomlinson? What sort of figure is she?'
'As pretty as can be.'
'As pretty as can be, is she? Go and ask her name.'
The man obeyed.
The stranger, disconcerted, answered, 'My name will not be known to Miss
Joddrel, but if she will have the goodness to receive, I am sure she
will recollect me.'
Elinor, who was listening, knew her voice, and, calling Tomlinson up
stairs, and heartily laughing, said, 'You are the greatest fool in the
whole world, Tomlinson! It is she! Bid her come to me directly.'
Tomlinson did as he was ordered, but grinned, with no small
satisfaction, at sight of the surprise with which, when they reached the
landing-place, his young mistress looked at the stranger.
'Why, Tomlinson,' she cried, 'who have you brought me hither?'
Tomlinson smirked, and the Incognita could not herself refrain from
smiling, but with a countenance so little calculated to excite distrust,
that Elinor, crying, 'Follow me,' led the way into her dressing room.
The young woman, then, with an air that strongly supplicated for
indulgence, said, 'I am truly shocked at the strange appearance which I
must make; but as I come now to throw myself upon your protection, I
will briefly--though I can enter into no detail--state to you how I am
circumstanced.'
'O charming! charming!' cried Elinor, clapping her hands, 'you are
going, at last, to relate your adventures! Nay, no drawing back! I won't
be disappointed! If you don't tell me every thing that ever you did in
your life, and every thing that ever you said, and every thing that ever
you thought,--I shall renounce you!'
'Alas!' answered the Incognita, 'I am in so forlorn a situation, that I
must not wonder if you conclude me to be some outcast of society,
abandoned by my friends from meriting their desertion,--a poor destitute
Wanderer, in search of any species of subsistence!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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