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Elsie's New Relations What They Did and How They Fared at Ion; A Sequel to Grandmother Elsie By: Martha Finley (1828-1909) |
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What They Did and How They Fared at Ion A Sequel to Grandmother Elsie by MARTHA FINLEY A. L. Burt Company
Publishers
New York Chicago 1911 CHAPTER I. "For wild, or calm, or far or near,
I love thee still, thou glorious sea."
Mrs. Hemans. "I bless thee for kind looks and words
Shower'd on my path like dew,
For all the love in those deep eyes,
A gladness ever new."
Mrs. Hemans.
It is late in the afternoon of a delicious October day; the woods back of
the two cottages where the Dinsmores, Travillas and Raymonds have spent
the last three or four months are gorgeous with scarlet, crimson and gold;
the air from the sea is more delightful than ever, but the summer visitors
to the neighboring cottages and hotels have fled, and the beach is almost
deserted, as Edward and his child wife wander slowly along it, hand in
hand, their attention divided between the splendors of a magnificent
sunset and the changing beauty of the sea; yonder away in the distance it
is pale gray; near at hand delicate green slowly changing to pink, each
wave crested with snowy foam, and anon they all turn to burnished gold. "Oh, how very beautiful!" cries Zoe, in an ecstasy of delight. "Edward,
did you ever see anything finer?" "Never! Let us go down this flight of steps and seat ourselves on the next
to the lowest. We will then be quite near the waves and yet out of danger
of being wet by them." He led her down as he spoke, seated her comfortably and himself by her
side with his arm around her. "I've grown very fond of the sea," she remarked. "I shall be sorry to
leave it. Will not you?" "Yes and no," he answered, doubtfully. "I, too, am fond of old ocean, but
eager to get to Ion and begin life in earnest. Isn't it time, seeing I
have been a married man for nearly five months? But why that sigh, love?" "O Edward, are you not sorry you are married? Are you not sometimes very
much ashamed of me?" she asked, her cheek burning hotly and the downcast
eyes filling with tears. "Ashamed of you, Zoe? Why, darling, you are my heart's best treasure," he
said, drawing her closer to his side, and touching his lips to her
forehead. "What has put so absurd an idea into your head?" "I know so little, so very little compared with your mother and sisters,"
she sighed. "I'm finding it out more and more every day, as I hear them
talk among themselves and to other people." "But you are younger than any of them, a very great deal younger than
mamma, and will have time to catch up to them." "But I'm a married woman and so can't go to school any more. Ah," with
another and very heavy sigh, "I wish papa hadn't been quite so indulgent,
or that I'd had sense enough not to take advantage of it to the neglect of
my studies!" "No, I suppose it would hardly do to send you to school, even if I could
spare you which I can't," he returned laughingly, "but there is a
possibility of studying at home, under a governess or tutor. What do you
say to offering yourself as a pupil to grandpa?" "Oh, no, no! I'm sure he can be very stern upon occasion. I've seen it in
his eyes when I've made a foolish remark that he didn't approve, and I
should be too frightened to learn if he were my teacher." "Then some one else must be thought of," Edward said, with a look of
amusement. "How would I answer?" "You? Oh, splendidly!" "You are not afraid of me?" "No, indeed!" she cried, with a merry laugh and a saucy look up into his
face. "And yet I'm the only person who has authority over you." "Authority, indeed!" with a little contemptuous sniff. "You promised to obey, you know." "Did I? Well, maybe so, but that's just a form that doesn't really mean
anything. Most any married woman will tell you that." "Do you consider the whole of your marriage vow an unmeaning form, Zoe?"
he asked, with sudden gravity and a look of doubt and pain in his eyes
that she could not bear to see. "No, no! I was only in jest," she said, dropping her eyes and blushing
deeply... Continue reading book >>
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