Mount of Hope: A Victorian Tale of Young Love by Michele Jamie

Author:Michele, Jamie [Michele, Jamie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Vintage Volumes
Published: 2015-03-22T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

From the perfect reconciliation which had taken place between herself and Alfred, Julia was enjoying as much happiness as seemed likely to fall to her lot. She was as equally relieved by the absence of Amelia as Alfred was in his suffering from it. Julia listened for long hours to the rhapsodies of Alfred’s love for another. She did this with such gentle martyr-like endurance, there were almost moments in which she forgave herself for the sin of having loved too well—from an honest consciousness that the penance she endured was sufficient to atone for it.

In this manner, days and weeks passed on to the annoyance of the enamored young man. There was nothing to suggest to either his parents or himself any shadow of a doubt concerning the ultimate success of his passion.

Lord Ripley owed a considerable debt of gratitude to the friendly exertions of Mrs. Knight, who continued to make the prolonged absence of Amelia appear to the Dermont family as no more than an additional reason to love her. Her exemplary kindness in attending the sickbed of her young friend was, again and again, applauded.

Mrs. Knight found nothing surprising in Amelia’s silence towards her. They had quarreled and she didn’t expect to hear from her again until such a time as she should be ready to return to her accustomed apartment at Crosby.

There had also been a military movement in Overby. The old encampment of Major Sommerton had been ordered off, and a new regiment installed. This change was the most important public event to befall Overby and its neighborhood in the six weeks since the departure of Miss Thorwold from Crosby. Although it arrived among gloom and sadness at the loss of Captain Waters, Ensign Wheeler, and a host of other favorites, a considerable degree of unexpected brilliance was the consequence. The principle cause was that the regiment of which this new detachment made a part was favored with the aristocracy of England. No less than three noble scions of right noble houses were among the officers now sent to keep the working men of the district in order.

A series of dinner parties immediately began, which soon led to a better acquaintance between the three honorables and the gentlefolk of the county families. Mrs. Knight declared that it did her quite good to speak to somebody who knew something about the rest of the world. Mrs. Verepoint had the gratification of discovering one of these honorable men was the son of an intimate friend. Colonel Dermont was startled at being informed, within two months of their arrival, that the Honorable Mr. Borrowdale had no wish so near to his heart as to lay it at the feet of his little ward, Julia.

This was a proposal so every way advantageous that the colonel could not be anything but extremely pleased by it. Nevertheless, his first and foremost powerful sensation on receiving Mr. Borrowdale’s letter was surprise. Up until that moment, Julia had been considered so completely a child by all of them, that the notion of her being married was almost laughable.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.