The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 5 of 5)Burney, Fanny
History
The Wanderer; or, Female Difficulties (Volume 5 of 5)
Burney, Fanny
France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799 -- Refugees -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Refugees -- Fiction; War stories
'Come!' he cried, 'young gentlewoman! don't be faint-hearted. Let the
lady have her way. I always like to have my own, which makes me speak up
for others. Besides which, I have no great opinion of quarrelling for
straws. We are none of us the nearer the mark for falling to
loggerheads: for which reason I make it a rule never to lose my temper
myself; except when I am provoked; so untie your work-bag, young
gentlewoman. I'll engage that it will do you no discredit, by the very
turn of your eye; for I don't know that, to my seeming, I ever saw a
modester look of a face.'
This harangue was uttered in a tone of good-humoured benevolence, that
seemed seeking to raise her spirits; yet with an expression of
compassion, that indicated a tender feeling for her disturbance; while
the marked integrity, and honest frankness of his own character, with a
high sense of honour, and a sincere love of virtue, beamed benignly, as
he looked at her, in every feature of his kind, though furrowed face.
Juliet was sensibly touched by his goodness and liberality, which
surprized from her all precaution; and the concession which she had
refused to arrogant menace, she spontaneously granted, to secure the
good will of her ancient, though unconscious friend. Raising, therefore,
her eyes, in which an expression of gratitude took place of that of
sadness, 'I will not, Sir,' she said, 'resist your counsel; though I
have in nothing forfeited my inherent right to the inviolability of my
property.'
She then put her work-bag into his own hands.
He received it with a bow down to the ground; while joy almost capered
in his old eyes; and, exultingly turning to Mrs Howel, 'To my seeming,
Madam,' he said, 'this young gentlewoman is as well-behaved a girl, as a
man might wish to meet with, from one side the globe to the t'other; and
I respect her accordingly. And, if I were to do so unhandsome a thing,
as to poke and peer into her baggage, after seeing her comport herself
so genteelly, I won't deny but I should merit a cat-o'-nine tails,
better than many an honest tar that receives them. And, therefore, I
hope, now, Madam, you will give back to the young gentlewoman your good
opinion, in like manner as I, here, give her back her work-bag.'
And then, with another profound bow, and a flourish of his hand, that
shewed his pleasure in the part which he was taking, he was returning to
Juliet her property; when he was startled by an ungovernable gust of
wrath, from the utterly enraged Mrs Howel, who exclaimed, 'If you dare
take it, young woman, unexamined, 'tis to a justice of the peace, and
not to a sea-officer, that you will deliver it another time!'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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