The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. i) * Alas, dearest Alfred!” she said, shaking her head mournfully; “it seems as if a veil had sud- denly fallen from my eyes !—a thousand circum- stances now surge up in my memory to make me apprehend a thousand evils!” “This is foolish, Ethel! Oh, this is foolish !” ejaculated Trevor vehemently. “Oh, do not be angry, dearest husband!” slie resumed, now lavishing upon him the tenderest caresses: “but you know my fondness—and hence you may appreciate my fears! Relieve me there~ fore of my doubts! Why those constant absences from home? why the mystery that envelopes our union? Why have I never been presented to your family? And, Oh! why, why should you who , are evidently so well off, bury me—aye, and bury yourself too when you are with me—in this com- ‘ paratively humble cottage ?” - “T thought, Ethel,” answered Trevor reproach, fully, “‘that you were contented to live with me No. 2.—TuHe Youne Ducuess. ars aan [en Connicloooks ‘inconsistent ‘anywhere, no matter how secluded the spot—how humble the home!” ’ “Heaven knows that I am thus..contented !” replied the young lady, smiling and weeping be-. neath the joint conflicting influences of her fond- ness and of her affliction. “It is not that 1 wish to change! But this occurrence has put such strange wild fears into my head—it has all in a moment made things which were apparently natural and consistent before, seem so strange and ? “You ask me, Ethel, relative to my frequent absences,” responded Trevor: “you ask me con- cerning my family—you ask me why having money at my command, I bury myself with you in a retirement like this. Have you never before received from me explanations on these points ? Have I not told you that I am connected with a mercantile firm on behalf of which I am com- pelled to travel frequently throughout all the Colin