Neither Godfrey nor my nephew would allow it. Come, let us put it
from our minds. It has always been my experience, that whatever I
expected from my much admired sister-in-law, that was the exact
reverse of what she actually did. Therefore let us attend to
topics, though I wager that you have no fresh acquisitions for
me to-day."
"I am ashamed, sir, but I could not fix my mind even to a most
frightful description of wolves in Mr. Thomson's 'Winter.'"
"That were scarcely a soothing subject; but we might find calm in
something less agitating and more familiar. Perhaps you can recall
something too firmly imprinted on your memory to be disturbed by
these emotions."
Aurelia bethought herself that she must not disappoint her friend on
what might prove their last evening; she began very unsteadily:--
"' Hence, loathed Melancholy.'"
However by the time "Jonson's learned sock" was on, her mechanical
repetition had become animated, and she had restored herself to
equanimity. When the clock struck nine, her auditor added his thanks,
"In case we should not meet again thus, let me beg of my kind visitor
to wear this ring in memory of one to whom she has brought a breath
indeed from L'Allegro itself. It will not be too large.
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