The Young Step-Mother; Or, A Chronicle of MistakesYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
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The Young Step-Mother; Or, A Chronicle of Mistakes
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Domestic fiction; England -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Stepmothers -- Fiction
Albinia gained her point, but Mr. Kendal and Lucy first tucked her up
upon the sofa, till she cried out, ‘You have swathed me hand and foot.
How am I to show off that little Awk?’
‘I’ll take care of that,’ said Mr. Kendal; and so he did, fully doing
the honours of the little daughter, who had already fastened on his
heart.
‘But,’ cried Albinia, breaking into the midst, ‘who or what are we,
ungrateful monsters, never to have thought of the man who caught that
dreadful horse!’
‘You shall see him as soon as you are strong enough,’ said Mr. Kendal;
‘your brother and I have been with him.’
‘Oh, I am glad; I could not rest if he had not been thanked. And can
anything be done for him? What is he? I thought he was a gentleman.’
Maurice smiled, and Mr. Kendal answered, ‘Yes, he is Mr. Goldsmith’s
nephew, and I am pleased to find that he is a connexion of your
brother.’
‘One of the O’Mores,’ cried Albinia. ‘Oh, Maurice, is it really one of
Winifred’s O’Mores?’
‘Even so,’ replied Mr. Ferrars; the very last person I should have
expected to meet on the banks of the Baye! It was that clever son of the
captain’s for whose education Mr. Goldsmith paid, and it seems had sent
for, to consider of his future destination. He only arrived yesterday.’
‘A very fine young man,’ said Mr. Kendal. ‘I was particularly pleased
with his manner, and it was an act of great presence of mind and
dexterity.’
‘It is all a maze and mystery to me,’ said Albinia; ‘do tell me all
about it. I can’t make out how the horse came there.’
‘I understood that young Dusautoy was calling here,’ said Mr. Kendal;
‘I wondered at even his coolness in coming in by that way, and at your
letting him in.’
‘I saw nothing of him,’ said Albinia. ‘Perhaps he was looking for
Gilbert.’
‘No,’ said Lucy, looking up from her work, with a slight blush, and
demure voice of secret importance; ‘he had only stepped in for a minute,
to bring me a new fern.’
‘Indeed,’ said her father; ‘I was not aware that he took interest in
your fernery.’
‘He knows everything about ferns,’ said Lucy. ‘Mrs. Cavendish Dusautoy
once had a conservatory filled with the rarest specimens, and he has
given me a great many directions how to manage them.’
‘Oh! if he could get you to listen to his maxims, I don’t wonder at
anything,’ exclaimed Albinia.
‘He had only just come in with the Adiantium, and was telling me how
hydraulic power directed a stream of water near the roots among his
mother’s Fuci,’ said Lucy, rather hurt. ‘He had fastened up his horse
quite securely, and nobody could have guessed that Maurice could have
opened that gate to cross the bridge, far less have climbed up the rail
to the horse’s back. I never shall forget my fright, when we heard
the creature’s feet, and Mr. Cavendish Dusautoy began to run after it
directly.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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