Reuben Medlicott; Or, the Coming Man (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1852 Excerpt: ...to set her mind at ease. Mrs. Mountjoy was now as overflowing with thanks, as if she had been petitioning for some mighty favour for herself, instead of merely deprecating an act of excessive imprudence on his part. Gazing admiringly on the manuscript which she recognized on the table, then tenderly taking it up, and turning over the pages with a mingled expression of curiosity and regret, she hoped he would permit her to read it. He could not deny the request, but assented with a sigh, which did not escape her ear, touch ingly intimating, at the same time, that the speech was made to be spoken, not to be read. The sigh of the young orator explained this distinction infinitely better to the fair widow's apprehension, than a long lecture on eloquence could have done. It made her more thoroughly sensible of the extent to which Reuben was sacrificing his own glory to her gratification, than if she had studied the treatise " De Claris Oratoribus." Such, indeed, was the effect of that sigh upon her, that it is possible the interview might have ended in Mrs. Mountjoy changing her mind altogether, and even imploring her nephew to do what she had just so earnestly dissuaded him from doing, had not her maid opportunely tapped at the door, to remind her that it was time to dress for dinner, and also to hand Mr. Medlicott a letter which had just been delivered by the postman. " I'll leave you to read it, my dear," said his aunt, as she ran away. That letter could not possibly have come at a more unlucky moment. It was from his mother, to acquaint him with the arrangements that had been made for the meeting at Chichester, and the intense excitement that prevailed in the neighbourhood about it, of which no small part, according to Mrs. Medlicott, was...