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    THE POBTBAIT. 105

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    _.. I Need Not Linger Over The Early Daw...

    and when a childbut tlie ineinory of tliat visit and of Mr . and Mrs . Bethune was of a , gloomy and chilling- character . When I spoke of

    refusal , every annt and uncle in the town and out of it gave it as their unanimous opinion that nothing under the sun could

    possibly "be of such advantage to " a girl in my position" as to see the world under the care of Mrs . Bethune , and all my objections were

    over-ruled . I was reminded that " to form an opinion based on the whim of a child would be utter folly ; " that the old gouty

    gentleman of whom I had stood in such awe was now dead , and that Mrs . Bethune , a widow , rich , and entirely her own mistress , . was sure to

    be a different person from the Mrs . Bethune I had seen . I saw that withor against my willI must go ; thereforethe only thing

    , , , left for me to do was to get ready and depart . There was one consolationand a great one . I was not going to old

    , gloomy Bethune Park , with its turrets , towers , and grey stone "walls , but to London , the centre of all things great and wonderful in my

    imagination . Mrs . Bethune had stated in her letter that watching and anxiety about her dear departed Francis , had injured her

    health ; that she had been recommended change of scene , and after remaining for a few months in London she might perhaps go to

    Paris . With such prospects before me I began to conjure up a fresh ideal of Mrs . Bethune , and discarded as worthless my childish

    antipathy . The railway had not , at the period of which I write , reached our part of the country ; so one fine spring morning I _wag

    put into the mail , given in charge to the guard , and finally was taken out of it and handed into the carriage of Mrs . Bethune , who

    had sent her maid to take care of me and of my packages . We were driven to the Regent ' s Park , -where a house had been taken

    for the widow , and of which she had been in possession some months previous to my arrival . Was the beautiful woman who now

    welcomed me with the sweetest of smiles and softest of voices the same as the one I had seen eight years before at Bethune Park ? I could

    scarcely believe it , and yet there were not two persons of the name . Yesit _« vas Mrs . Bethunenot as I had imagined her from my

    childish , outlinebut , fairerand full of kindness . I felt ashamed of myself , and younger thoug , ht what , a stupid child I must have

    been . And there , , too , stood dear old Sarah Dermid shaking my hand and declaring she would not have known the tall young lady

    as the little girl she used to lead about the garden . Sarah was one of those faithful followers formerly so common in good families , but

    now somewhat rare . Wherever Mrs . Bethune resided , there Sarah was _siire to be found , and for any member of the house of Mansfield

    she would have worked , watched , or prayed all day and all night if necessary The change . from the simple life I had been leading in our quiet

    town , to the bustle of London , combined with the luxurious habits an'd fashionable style of Mrs . Bethune's establishmentwas at first

    , rather embarrassing . A few months however brought me to more

    _YOiL . VII . I

    The Pobtbait. 105

    THE POBTBAIT . 105

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), April 1, 1861, page 105, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01041861/page/33/