All the Tear Round. a Weekly Joltinal
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
"THE STORT OF OUR LIVES FROM YEAR TO YEAR."—SHAKBSPEAKE. I»ot ALL THE TEAR ROUND. A WEEKLY JOLTINAL. at. • I CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DICKENS. ell(t,ll,. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED HO^USEHOLD WORDS. ,t,jNo- 227.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 1863. [PillCE 2rf. other young lady about to be married beneath YERY HARD CASH. her roof. BT THE ATITHOB OF " IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO MEND.' It wanted but six days, when one morning iSto after breakfast the bereaved wife, and mother ncL CHAPTER XXXIT. about to be deserted, addressed her son and fti»m THE spirit of dissension in Musj^rove Cottage Viceroy thus: " Edward, we mtisl borrow ' penetrated to the very kitchen. Old Betty fifty pounds." {sided with Alfred, and combated in her place " Fifty pounds ? what for ? who wants that ?" il the creed ofthe parlour ; "Why, according to " Whjr / want it," said Mrs. Dodd, stoutly. Miss, the young sparrows are bound never to fly "Oh, iiyou want it—what to do, please?" out of the nest; or else have the Bible flung at " Why to buy her wedding clothes, dear." 'em. She do go on about God's will: seems to "I thought what her '1' would come to," me 'tis His will the world should be peopled by said Julia, reproachfully. iih- body and beast—which tbey are both his crea Edward shook his head, and said, " He who tures—and, by the same toaken, if they don't goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing." marry they does wus. Certainly whilst a young " But slie is not a he," objected Mrs. Dodd man bides at home, it behoves him to be dutiful; with the subtlety of a schoolman : " and who but that ain't to say he is to bide at home for ever heard of a young lady being married with ever. Master Alfred's time is come to leave we, out sorae things to be married in!"' and be master in a house of his own, as his father " Well, Pve heard Nudity is not the cheese, done before him, which he forgets that now; on public occasions: but why not go dressed M'i he is grown to man's estate, and got his mother's like a lady as she always does, only with white money, and no more bound to our master than gloves; and be married, without any bother aud I be." She said too, that " partin" blights more nonsense." quarrels than it breeds:" and she constantly "You talk like a boy," said Mrs. Dodd. "I invited Peggy to speak up, and gainsay her. could not bear it. My poor child!" ani she But Peggy was a young woman with white eye cast a look of tenderest pity on the proposed lashes, and given to looking down, and not to victim. "Well, suppose we make tne poor • J speaking up; she was always watching Mr. child the judge," suggested Edward. He then ' ', t Hardie in company, like a cat cream; and hover- put it to Julia whether, under the circumstances, . 'j ing about him when alone. Betty went so far she would wish them to run in debt, buying her • J as to accuse her of colloguing with him against finery to wear for a day. " It was not fair to I , * Alfred, and of " setting her cap at ' master," ask her" said Mrs. Dodd with a sigh. • •{, which accusation elicited no direct reply, but Julia blushed and hesitated, and said she ; ;) stinging iauendoes hours after. would be candid; and then stopped. V Now, if one looks into the thing, the elements "Ugh!" ejaculated Edward. "This is a V discord had attacked Albion Villa quite as bad beginning. Girls' candour! now for a overfullv as Musgrove Cottage; but had masterpiece ol duplicity." Eitherto miled signally: the mutual affection of Julia inquired how he dared ; and Mrs. Dodd the Dodds was so complete, and uo unprincipled said warmly that Julia was not like other people, ptvson among them to split the good. she could be candid; had actuaUy done it, more 10 •A-U^, now that the wedding drew near, there than ^nce, within her recollection. The young was but bne joyful heart withm the walls, though lady justified the exception as follows: "If I the others Wt««> too kind and unselfish to throw was going to be married to myself, or to some cold water. Mr&. Dodd's own wedding had gentlemau I did not care for, I would not spend ended in a piteous sepiaation, and now to part a shilling. But I am goin^ to marry hint; and with lier darling child and launch her on the so—oh, Edward, think of them saying 'what has uncertain waves of matrimony! She heaved he married P a dowdy: why she hadn't new many a sigh when alone: but, as there were no things on to go to church with him: no bonnet, bounds to her maternal love, so there were no no wreath, no new white dress!' To mortify exceptions to her politeness: over her aching him the verjr first day of our " The heart she forced on a wedding face, subdued, but sentence remained unfinished, but two lovely hopeful, for her daughter, as she would for any eyes filled to the very brim without running VOL.X. 227 2 [August 20, 1863.] ALL THE YEAR ROUND. [Conductedl over, and completed the sense, and did the " All right !" said he. "That will takI Viceroy's business though a brother. "Why jolly time, I know; so I'll go to my govet you dear little goose," said he: " of course I first for the bonnet and wreath." don't mean that. I have as good as got the Mrs. Dodd drew in at this last slang wo] things we must buy; and those are a new she had heard young gentlemen apply it to th^ bonnet " fathers. Edward, she felt sure, would not so s ^ "Ah!" that sacred relation: stiU the word was obnoxioi " A wreath of orange blossoms- for its past offences; and she froze at it: " Oh you good boy !" have not the honour to know who the personage " Four pair of gloves : two white—one is safe is you so describe," said she formally. Edward to break—two dark ; very dark: invisible green, replied very carelessly that it was an upholsterer or visible black; last the honeymoon. All the at the North end of the town. rest you must find in the house." " Ah, a tradesman you patronise." "What, fit her out with a parcel of old "Hiunph? Well, yes, that is the wo: things ? Can you be so cruel, so unreasonable, mamma, haw! haw! I have been making t] dear Edward ?" bloke a lot of oak candlesticks, and humi " Old things! Why, where is all your heads with sparkling eyes, for walking-stick Gorgeous Attire from Oriental climes ? I see the &c. And now I'll go and draw my—^proteg^i splendiferous articles arrive, and then they —blunt." The lady's hands were uplifted ti vanish for ever." wards pitying Heaven with one impulse: the' " Now, shawls and Indian muslins ! pi'ay young workman grinned: " Soyons de notret what use are they to a bride ?" siecle," said he, and departed whistling in tl "Why what looks nicer than a white muslin tenor clef. He had the mellowest whistle dress ?" England. " Married in muslin ? The very idea makes After a few minutes well spent in deplormj me shiver." the fall of her Oxonian, and gently denounci ^ " Well, clap her on another petticoat." his motto, and his century, its ways, and abow "How can you be so childish? Muslin is all its words, Mrs. Dodd took JuUa to her bed not the thing" room, and unlocked drawers and doors in hi " No more is running in debt." wardrobe; and straightway Sarah, who w He then suggested tliat a white shawl or two hurriedly flogging the chairs with a duster, r& should be cut into a bridal dress. At this laxed, and began to work on a cheval-glass both ladies' fair throats opened on him with slowly as if she was drawing Nelson's lions at ridicule : cut fifty-guinea shawls into ten-pound thousand pounds the tail. Mrs. Dodd opened dresses ; that was male economy; was it? drawer and took out three pieces of worke Total; a wedding was a wedding : new things Indian muslin, a little discoloured by hoarding always had had to be bought for a wedding, and " There, that must be bleached and make yoa always would, in secula seculorum. some wrappers for the honeymoon, if the weather " New things ? Yes," said the pertinacious is at all fine; and petticoats to match;" next wretch; " but they need not be new-bought an envelope consisting of two foolscap sheets things. You ladies go and confound the world's tacked: this, carefuUy undone upon the bed, eyes with your own in the drollest way: if revealed a Brussels lace flounce and a veil: "It Gorgeous Attire has lain long in your drawers, was my own," said Mrs. Dodd softly. " I saved, you fancy the world will detect on its glossy it for you; see here is your name written on' surface how long you had it, and gloated over it, it seventeen years ago. I thought, ' this dear and made it stale to your eye, before you could little toddler wiU have wings some day, and thea bring your mind to wear it. That is your she wiU leave me.' But now I am almost afraid delusion, that and the itch for going out shop to let you wear it; it might bring you misfor ping ; oh, I'm down on you.