The Sea-Witch - Or, the African Quadroon : a Story of the Slave Coast by Maturin Murray Ballou
page 197 of 215 (91%)
page 197 of 215 (91%)
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decreed that she should not marry, nor engage herself positively, until
she had met a certain young gentleman, upon whom like commands had been imposed by his equally solicitous parents. The name, it must be confessed, impressed May favorably--Walter Cunningham; there was something manly about it, and she spent more time than she would like to acknowledge, in speculations regarding its owner, for to May, notwithstanding what Will Shakspeare has said to the contrary, there was a very great deal in a name. By some chance she had never met him. She had passed most of her life, for what crimes she could not tell, in a sort of prison, ycleped a fashionable boarding-school, and the greater part of the vacations had been spent with a rich maiden aunt and an old bachelor uncle in the city of Brotherly Love. A few days previous to her liberation from this "durance vile," Walter Cunningham had set out for Paris, where he was to remain as long as suited his convenience. May had just returned home, and having learned this little piece of news, which she very properly deemed not at all complimentary to herself, was in as vexable a mood as her amiability ever allowed. Her cousin Hal suddenly entered the room in a rather boisterous manner, with the exclamation: "Hurrah! May, I am going to be a fireman!" "So I should suspect," returned May, a little pettishly. "Suspect?" said Hal, sobering down in a moment. May laughed. "Why will you join such a set of rowdies, Hal? I should think it quite |
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