Page:Experiments.pdf/9

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228
EXPERIMENTS.

expects you to rise in the morning to bring her violets with the dew on them; takes country rambles, which would spoil my complexion; and moonlight walks, which would give me cold. Charles Ellis told me that, in a fit of despair occasioned by a run of ill-luck at écarté, he entered into her service for three weeks. He, however, soon found himself feverish—lost his appetite—had a hectic cough—and the fourth week retired on a consumption. I do not feel equal to the exertion,"

"Mrs. Ellerby's two daughters."

"Yes, and never know which is which! I hate people cut out by a pattern. Besides, the only papers in the family are pedigrees; and I am not rich enough to keep a cook, a confectioner, and a wife. Moreover, Mrs. Ellerby, being what is called serious, would expect my attentions and intentions to be as serious as every thing else in the house. No; I want to find some unsophisticated being whose hair curls naturally."

“Now, in pity spare me the description of that never-to-be-discovered perfection, an ideal mistress! Be sure you will fall in love with the very opposite."

"I don't care, so long as I could fall in love. But the rain is over: you will not ride, will you?"

Cecil Forrester rode along the beach by himself. Most earnestly did he wish that some of the young ladies who were sketching "that beautiful effect of light on the grey rocks," would tumble into the water.