THE MUNSTER COTTAGE BOY. A Tale. IN FOUR VOLUMES. BY REGINA MARIA ROCHE, AUTHOR OF THE CHILDREN OF THE ABBEY, TRECOTHICK BOWER, MONASTERY And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy. BEATTIE VOL. II. London: Printed at the Minerva Press for A. K. NEWMAN AND CO. LEADENHALL-STREET. 1820. THE MUNSTER COTTAGE BOY. CHAPTER I. ""Tis not so sweet now as it was before Oh, Spirit of Love! how quick and fresh art thou! Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there, Of what validity and pitch soever, But falls into abatement and low price, AT length lord Castle Dermot arrived. Scarcely had he received his mother's affectionate welcome, ere he demanded an explanation of the curious incident she had alluded to in her letter, and who the delightful companion was that she said chance had given her. Her ladyship f evaded these inquiries; it was not her intention indeed to be explicit with him concerning Fidelia, convinced that, even by him, thoughtless and giddy as he was, were every circumstance relative to her known, the idea of her sanctioning an attachment between them would be laughed at, and ridiculed as one extravagant in the extreme. Laughing at what she styled his feminine curiosity, she proceeded to ask him whether colonel Grandison had urged his coming, as she requested? Urged!-no, faith-he did all in his power to prevent me. I never found him so pressing before for my company." "Kind and obliging indeed!" said her ladyship, resentfully. "Faith, yes-so I think. I am beginning to fancy," conceitedly pulling up his collar at the glass, "from the circumstance, that I am infinitely more delightful than my modesty would once allow me to imagine." "Well, we shan't discuss that point at present. I am going to change my dress |
