The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 2 of 5)Burney, Fanny
History
The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 2 of 5)
Burney, Fanny
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Refugees -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Refugees -- Fiction; War stories
These precautions, though they answered in divesting her of a casual and
transient complaint, were big with many and greater evils, which
threatened to become habitual. The faint warmth of a constantly shut up
apartment; the total deprivation of that spring which exercise gives to
strength, and fresh air to existence, soon operated a change in her
whole appearance. Her frame grew weaker; the roses faded from her
cheeks; she was shaken by every sound, and menaced with becoming a
victim to all the tremors, and all the languors of nervous disorders.
Alas! she cried, how little do we know either of the labours, or the
privations, of those whose business it is to administer pleasure to the
public! We receive it so lightly, that we imagine it to be lightly
given!
Alarmed, now, for her future and general health, she relinquished this
dangerous and enervating system; and, committing herself again to the
chances of the weather, and the exertions of exercise, was soon, again,
restored to the enjoyment of her excellent constitution.
Meanwhile, the reproaches of Mr Giles Arbe, for her seeming neglect of
her own creditors, who had applied for his interest, constrained her to
avow to him the real and unfeeling neglect which was its cause.
Extremely angry at this intelligence, he declared that he should make it
his especial business, to urge those naughty ladies to a better
behaviour.
Accordingly, at the next rehearsal,--for, as the relation of Miss Arbe,
he was admitted to every meeting,--he took an opportunity, upon
observing two or three of the scholars of Ellis in a group, to bustle in
amongst them; and, pointing to her, as she sat upon a form, in a
distant corner, 'Do but look,' he said, 'at that pretty creature,
ladies! Why don't you pay her what you owe her? She wants the money very
much, I assure you.'
A forced little laugh, from the ladies whom this concerned, strove to
turn the attack into a matter of pleasantry. Lady Kendover alone, and at
the earnest desire of her niece, took out her purse; but when Mr Giles,
smiling and smirking, with a hand as open as his countenance, advanced
to receive what she meant to offer, she drew back, and, saying that she
could not, just then, recollect the amount of the little sum, walked to
the other end of the room.
'Oh, I'll bring you word what it is directly, my lady!' cried Mr Giles;
'so don't get out of the way. And you, too, my Lady Arramede; and you,
Miss Sycamore; and you, Miss Brinville; if you'll all stand together,
here, in a cluster, I'll bring every one of you the total of your
accounts from her own mouth. And I may as well call those two merry
young souls, the Miss Crawleys, to come and pay, too. She has earned her
money hardly enough, I'm sure, poor pretty lady!'
'O, very hardly, to be sure!' cried Lady Arramede; 'to play and sing are
vast hardships!'
'O, quite insupportable!' said Miss Sycamore: 'I don't wonder she
complains. Especially as she has so much else to do with her time.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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