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
When the hour of exhibition approached, and she was summoned to the
apartment destined for the green-room, universal astonishment was
produced by her appearance. It was not from her dress; they had seen,
and already knew it to be fanciful and fashionable; nor was it the
heightened beauty which her decorations displayed; this, as she was
truly lovely, was an effect that they expected: but it was from the ease
with which she wore her ornaments, the grace with which she set them
off, the elegance of her deportment, and an air of dignified modesty,
that spoke her not only accustomed to such attire, but also to the good
breeding and refined manners, which announce the habits of life to have
been formed in the superior classes of society.
Selina, as she opened the door, exultingly called out, 'Look! look! only
look at Ellis! did you ever see any thing in the world so beautiful?'
Ireton, to whom dress, far more than feature or complexion, presented
attraction, exclaimed, 'By my soul, she's as handsome as an angel!'
Elinor, thus excited, came forward; but seemed struck speechless.
They now all flocked around her; and Mrs Maple, staring, cried, 'Why who
did you get to put your things on for you?' when suddenly recollecting
the new account which she had herself given, and caused to be spread of
this young person, she forced a laugh, and added, 'Bless me, Miss Ellis,
if I had not quite forgotten whom I was speaking to! Why should not Miss
Ellis know how to dress herself as well as any other young lady?'
'Why, indeed,' said Miss Bydel, 'it makes a prodigious change, a young
lady's turning out a young lady, instead of a common young woman. I've
seen a good many of the Ellis's. Pray, Ma'am, does your part of the
family come from Yorkshire? or Devonshire? for I should like to know.'
'And, if there were any gentlemen of your family, with you, Ma'am, in
foreign parts,' said Mr Scope, 'I should be glad to have their opinion
of this Convention, now set up in France: for as to ladies, though they
are certainly very pleasing, they are but indifferent judges in the
political line, not having, ordinarily, heads of that sort. I speak
without offence, inferiority of understanding being no defect in a
female.'
'Well, I thought from the first,' said young Gooch, 'and I said it to
sisters, that the young lady was a young lady, by her travelling, and
that. But pray, Ma'am, did you ever look on, to see that Mr Robert Speer
mow down his hundreds, like to grass in a hay-field? We should not much
like it if they were to do so in England. But the French have no spirit.
They are but a poor set; except their generals, or the like of that.
And, for them, they'll fight you like so many lions. They are afraid of
nobody.'
'By what I hear, Ma'am,' said Mr Stubbs, 'a gentleman, in that country,
may have rents due to the value of thousands, and hardly receive a frog,
as one may say, an acre.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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