The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 4 of 5)Burney, Fanny
History
The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 4 of 5)
Burney, Fanny
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Refugees -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Refugees -- Fiction; War stories
appearance, called _la belle_, than from her acquirements and conduct
_la sage petite Anglaise_. And here, still more united by the same
sentiments than by the same studies, Gabriella had formed with her the
tender, confiding and unalterable friendship, that had bound them to
each other with an even sisterly love.
The Bishop frequently pressed the young lord to avow the birth of
Juliet, and to legitimate her claims upon his family: but he always
answered, that since she, whose reputation, happiness, and spirits might
have paid the avowal, was gone, he could not support the fruitless pain
of offending his sickly, but imperious father, by such a discovery, till
the necessity of receiving his daughter should make it indispensable.
Previous to this period, Gabriella was taken from the convent, to
prepare for her marriage with the Comte de ----; and Juliet, who had then
lost her tender grandmother, was invited to the wedding-ceremony, and to
remain with her friend till she should be called to her own country.
Lord Granville, with that spirit of procrastination which always grows
with indulgence, joyfully acceded to this invitation; and remitted to
the ensuing summer the public acknowledgment of his daughter. But, ere
the ensuing summer arrived, all these projects were rendered abortive!
The Bishop, through a news-paper, received the fatal intelligence, that
Lord Granville had been killed by a fall from his horse.
While the deeply disappointed and afflicted Juliet was the prey of heavy
grief at this event, the Bishop, to whom the grandmother, in dying, had
consigned the marriage-certificate, the codicil, and every letter or
paper that authenticated the legitimacy of her grandchild, constituted
himself guardian and protector of the young orphan.
Convinced that no time should be lost in making known her rights, yet
unwilling to risk shocking the old peer by an abrupt address, he stated
the affair to Lord Denmeath, brother to Lord Granville's second lady,
and guardian of two children by the second marriage. To this
communication he received no answer. But, upon writing again, with more
energy, and hinting at sending over an agent, Lord Denmeath thought
proper to reply. His style was extremely cold. His brother-in-law, he
said, had expired, after his fall, without uttering a word. Having,
therefore, no knowledge of any secret business, he begged to be excused
from entering into a discussion of the obscure affair to which the
Bishop seemed to allude.
The Bishop grew but warmer in the interests of his Ward, from the
difficulty of serving her. He sent over, to Lord Denmeath, copies of the
codicil, of the certificate, and of every letter upon the subject, that
had been written to the grandmother, or to himself, by the late lord.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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