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Odeyne's Marriage

Evelyn Everett-Green

9781613102565
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
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Overview
And so this is really Desmond's wedding-day? remarked the dainty invalid, as she donned a remarkably becoming cap, and settled herself comfortably upon her pillows. "Well, to be sure, it is natural enough, I suppose, but somehow he has always seemed such a boy. Really I find it difficult to realise him with a wife. I wonder how the poor girl will get on." "The poor girl, mother; really I do not think she is to be pitied. I think she has done uncommonly well for herself—a country clergyman's daughter," answered Maud, with a lifting of the delicate dark brows that showed a trace of superciliousness. "That is just the whole point of the matter, my dear. If he had selected a bride out of his own world she would have known exactly what to expect from her marriage—she would have understood the risk she ran with a youth of Desmond's temperament; but this rustic maiden probably knows nothing, and will not even be on her guard. It makes me anxious for them both." Maud looked up quickly, knitting her brows somewhat. "But, mother, Desmond is steady enough now. He has never been more than a little wild and extravagant at Oxford, and so many young men are that. I am sure the last year or two he has been a model of discretion, and his marriage will sober him down still more—at least that is generally supposed to be the effect it has." "I hope it may—perhaps that is his best chance. Oh no, Maud, I am not running down your brother—you need not give me such black looks. But facts are stubborn things, and it is no use trying to blink them; and the fact remains that your beloved Desmond has never yet stood up with any success against temptation. When there is no special inducement to take him out of the beaten path, he keeps to it pretty steadily; but he cannot withstand temptation, and anyone can lead him, who goes to work the right way."

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