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Title: Patience, a Tale
Author: Hofland, Barbara (1770-1844)
Illustrator: Burney, Edward Francisco (1760-1848)
Date of first publication: 1824
Edition used as base for this ebook:
London: Arthur Hall, Virtue and Co., [January 1856:
date of publisher’s catalogue bound in with the book]
Date first posted: 3 September 2010
Date last updated: 3 September 2010
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #607
This ebook was produced by:
David Edwards, woodie4
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team
at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
This file was produced from images generously made
available by the Internet Archive/American Libraries
PATIENCE.
[Illustration: _Stancliffe was just going out at the moment when she
alighted and he not only started at the sight of her but the colour
sprang into his cheek—“he loves me,” said Dora_. Page 99]
PATIENCE.
A TALE
BY
Mrs. Hofland.
AUTHOR OF
_Africa Described. Integrity. Decision.
Moderation. Reflection. Self-Denial.
Clergyman’s Widow. &c. &c._
“Let Patience have her perfect work.”
St. PAUL.
A New Edition.
LONDON.
ARTHUR HALL, VIRTUE & C^o
25, PATERNOSTER ROW.
PATIENCE.
A TALE.
CHAPTER I.
“I think dear Miss Hemingford cannot be well to-night, she looks
sometimes pale, and sometimes flushed, and has walked up and down that
espalier walk this half hour—what can be the matter with her, Mrs.
Aylmer?”
The lady to whom this enquiry was addressed, well knew that it was made
from the kindest motives; she therefore replied,—
“Dora and myself, Mrs. Longden, are alike in a state of great anxiety,
on the subject of a letter we expect to-night from her parents, to whom
I have written, requesting their permission to take her with me to the
south of France, to which place, you know, I am ordered, for the benefit
of my health.”
“If you could entertain a doubt of their ready acquiescence, you might
well be anxious; but surely it is impossible they could think of
removing her from you at that time, when your health requires the care
of an affectionate and grateful daughter?”
“I hope they will not,—yet some of their late letters have indicated
such an intention; and so material a change in my residence may have a
tendency to confirm a wavering resolution.”
“In my opinion,” replied the good neighbour, “they will act most
ungratefully towards you, and cruelly towards her, if they divide
you;—you have reared her from infancy,—nursed her from a sickly
plant, into a blooming flower, and—”
Mrs. Longden spoke warmly, for she was really moved; but perceiving that
her auditor, who was but slowly recovering from a severe illness, became
too much affected, she checked herself, and after a pause, added in a
soothing tone—
“To be sure, if you are obliged to part, you will have the advantage of
being with the Sydenhams, who are the best people in the world;—and
she, poor girl, will, I hope, bear the trial well; she is of such a
sweet temper, such a patient disposition.”
“Dora is, indeed, of a sweet temper, Mrs. Longden, and has great
patience, considering that her sensibility is so acute as to render
equanimity difficult. She is gentle, loving, full of kindness, and so
utterly devoid of selfishness, that she may be said to live in, and for,
her fellow-creatures; she will, therefore, doubtless, exercise
self-controul for the sake of others, and whatever she may feel, will
not complain.”
“There is a principle of Patience,” continued Mrs. Aylmer, in a subdued
and solemn voice, “founded on more awful and affecting views,—the
patience of a Christian,—the submissive resignation of a humble soul,
which receives sorrow, injustice, and offence, as the chastisements of a
heavenly Father;—this higher, purer, gospel-planted patience, I hope my
Dora is not devoid of; but the quiet tenor of our lives has not hitherto
called it into action:—should she enter the world without me by her
side, I fear she may too soon be called upon to practise it.”
At this moment the subject of her remarks entered the room, to invite
them to walk in the garden, and see the setting sun throw his parting
rays upon the rippling Usk, on whose banks they dwelt; but Mrs. Longden,
aware that the moments were now precious, took leave. Mrs. Aylmer, after
due wrapping up, accepted her young friend’s arm, less to partake of
pleasure than to evade solicitude.
As it was a period full of tender recollections, and awakened feelings
to these friends, one of whom was still a handsome, though delicate
woman in middle life; the other a tall, slender, half-formed girl, in
her eighteenth year, with much about her that indicated the seclusion of
a country girl, combined with the mind and manners of a
gentlewoman—the promise of future elegance, in addition to existing
beauty: we will take the present time for introducing them more
intimately to our readers.
CHAP. II.
Mr. Hemingford was a merchant in Liverpool, and married in his thirtieth
year, a very pretty girl under twenty. Circumstances had made her the
intimate acquaintance of Mrs. Aylmer, who was a few years her senior,
and who was married at the same time to a clergyman to whom she had been
long engaged.
The first couple resembled thousands beside them; they were very fond of
each other during the honey moon, and pretty well afterwards.—The
gentleman pushed his fortune in the counting-house, the lady exhibited
the fruits of his industry in her drawing-room. The second couple were
of a very distinct character, their affection was a bond of union that
controuled and attuned every motion of their spirits, and they lived but
for each other, and those to whom their duty attached them.
In the second year of his married life, Mr. Aylmer was cut off by a
short illness, contracted by visiting a sick parishioner; he left a
widow, on whose distress it is unnecessary to dilate, since it would be
impossible to describe, with only one little girl.
In a few months, the child died also; and she was shortly afterwards
summoned to attend the death-bed of her only relative, who, in leaving
her his property, restored her to that place in society the early death
of her husband had deprived her of, and brought her again to Liverpool.
Mr. Hemingford aided her in settling her affairs, and his wife received
her with much pleasure and kindness:—she was now the mother of three
girls; but the widow perceived with pain, that notwithstanding her
maternal character, she was still a laughing, giddy creature, whose
greatest pleasure arose from wheedling or cheating her husband out of
some childish amusement, or expensive bauble. He was become morose, and
ungracious in his manners, and foolishly allowed himself to be
exceedingly mortified that his wife had not given him a boy, observing,
“that his eldest girl was certainly a very fine child, and almost as
good as a boy; but the second was a poor creature, and the youngest he
considered as nothing at all.”
Mrs. Hemingford, on the birth of her second girl, had sought to remedy
her unintentional fault, by inviting a very distant relation of her own
to become its godmother, who was rich and unconnected. The lady
consented, on condition of giving the child her own name, to which the
mother unhappily consented; for as Mrs. Dorothy Downe happened to be a
person of singular manners, and very unpleasant to Mr. Hemingford, it
was certainly a pity that he should be thus continually reminded of her.
The child was baptized by both these names; and although a third was
added, in order to reconcile the father, he persisted in calling the
child only “Dolly,” to provoke his wife, who thought proper to adopt
that of Dorothea, observing, “it was equally proper and much prettier.”
Whether it arose from the frequent disputes of which she was the
innocent cause, or the preference constantly given to her elder sister,
we know not; but it is certain that this child, though in good health,
looked pale, and that she was timid, and silent, as if some interdict
had been passed upon her; whilst a single word, a look of kindness, was
received by her with such a bounding heart, and sparkling eye, as to
render her not only more interesting, but actually more beautiful, than
her handsome sister.
Mrs. Aylmer had been long accustomed to a delicate child;—her heart,
though bowed by sorrow, was full of kindness; and she soon found the
little neglected child the most attractive person in her father’s
establishment, although one which might be easily detached from it
without pain to either party. On this subject she thought long, and
weighed it duly; but as the “little strong embrace” was wound more
closely round her heart every day, at length she proposed taking the
child, (whom she had hitherto called Dora,) to the sea-side, as a
probable means of strengthening her.
The offer was joyfully accepted, and they set out for Swansea; but as
Mrs. Aylmer had an unfortunate freedom from all ties of relationship
which might influence her choice of a home, she eventually fixed upon a
residence in the delightful village of Crickhowel, in South Wales, which
combined with every beauty of situation, a small, but valuable circle of
society.
From this period, her name, her home, the indefinable something, which
had oppressed her infant spirits, were alike forgotten:—she had not
only the advantages of maternal tenderness continually exerted for her
benefit, but that unrestrained freedom which renders the country a
paradise to children. Green fields, in which to run with the lambs;
gardens, in which to plant flowers and gather them; chickens to feed and
to love;—little children to visit and help; little companions to expect
and to play with; heart, hands, and mind, were in daily exercise.
“Thus passed her time, a clear, unruffled stream;” by no means disturbed
by messages from home, towards which it was yet so much the care of Mrs.
Aylmer to direct her views, and excite her affections, that there is no
doubt Dora felt a very sincere regard for her parents, and a great
desire to know and love her sisters; and she would have had that
pleasure in the course of the last fourteen years undoubtedly, if her
mother had not intended, from time to time, to visit Mrs. Aylmer. The
excuses she found it necessary to make were strong ones, as during this
period she had been the mother of seven more children, of whom two only
survived: six of them had been boys, but it appeared that an uncommon
delicacy had affected all her infants of this sex; and the one whom she
still preserved, was a subject of continual
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