Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 06
General
Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 06
Scottish Borders (Scotland) -- Fiction
Well, my friends, all went smoothly on with me this time. The happy day
arrived--we proceeded to church. The clergyman began the service. In
three minutes more, gentleman, I would have been indissolubly united to
my beloved and her L10,000, when, at this critical moment, a person
rushed breathless into the church, forced his way through the crowd of
friends by whom we were surrounded, and caught my betrothed in his arms,
exclaiming--"Jessie, Jessie! would you forsake me? Have you forgot your
vows?" Jessie replied by a loud shriek, and immediately fainted.
Here, then, you see, gentlemen (continued the little hump-backed man in
the bright yellow waistcoat), was a pretty kick-up all in a moment.
In a twinkling, the bevy of friends by whom we were accompanied
scattered in all directions--some running for water, some for brandy,
some for one thing and some for another, till there was scarcely one
left in the church. The service was, of course, instantly stopped; and
my beloved was, in the meantime, very tenderly supported by the arms of
the stranger; for such he was to me at any rate, although by no means
so either to the lady herself or to her friends. I was, as you may well
believe, all astonishment and amazement at this extraordinary scene, and
could not at all conceive what it meant; but it was not long before I
was very fully informed on this head. To return, however, in the
meantime, to the lady. On recovering from her fainting fit, the
stranger, who had been all along contemplating her with a look of the
most tender affection, asked her, in a gentle voice, "If she would still
continue true to him." And, gentlemen, she answered, though in a voice
scarcely audible, "Yes;" and, immediately after, the two walked out of
the church arm in arm, in spite of the remonstrances and even threats
of myself and my friends--leaving us, and me in particular, to such
reflections on the uncertainty of all human events as the circumstance
which had just occurred was calculated to excite. In three weeks after,
the stranger and Jessie were married. Who he was is soon explained. He
had been a favoured lover of Jessie's some seven years before, and had
gone abroad, where it was believed he had died, there having been no
word from him during the greater part of that period. How this was
explained I never knew; but that he was not dead, you will allow was now
pretty clearly established.
Now, gentlemen (added our little friend), I have brought my mishaps up
to the present date. What may be still in store for me, I know not; but
I have now brought myself to the peaceful and most comfortable condition
of having no hopes of succeeding in anything, and therefore am freed, at
least, from all liability to the pains of disappointment." And here
ended the story of the little hump-backed gentleman in the bright yellow
waistcoat.
We all felt for his disappointments, and wished him better luck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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