Stories of American Life, Volume 1

Front Cover
Mary Russell Mitford
H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830 - Short stories, American
 

Selected pages

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 250 - Tis she ! — but why that bleeding bosom gor'd ' Why dimly gleams the visionary sword ? Oh ever beauteous, ever friendly ! tell, Is it in heaven a crime to love too well ? To bear too tender or too firm a heart, To act a Lover's or a Roman's part ? Is there no bright reversion in the sky For those...
Page 100 - To answer thy best pleasure ; be "t to fly, To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curled clouds, to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality.
Page 197 - I would not come before, for fear you would think it was to dun you," said he. He has repeated his visit every summer, for the last seven years, and assures me every time, that were he not Hardup, he would be Ambler. It would be tedious, neither is it necessary to the moral of my story, to detail the progress I made, and the wonders achieved by Ahasuerus, from the period in which I first took possession of my estate, to that in which I am now writing. Great as they were, they bear no comparison with...
Page 156 - I had aches of all sorts : stiff necks, pains in the shoulders, sides, back, loins, head, breast; in short, there never was a man so capriciously used by certain inexplicable, unaccountable infirmities, as I was. I dare say I had often felt the same pains before without thinking of them, because I was too busy to mind trifles ; for it is a truth which my experience has since verified, that the most ordinary evils of life are intolerable, without the stimulus of some active pursuit to draw us from...
Page 331 - In his eye there was something peculiar, yet I could not tell in what that peculiarity consisted. It was a small grey orb, whose calm, bold, direct glances, seemed to vouch that it had not cowered with shame, or quailed in danger. There was blended in that eye a searching keenness, with a quiet vigilance — a watchful, sagacious self-possession — so often observable in the physiognomy of those who are in the habit of expecting, meeting, and overcoming peril. His heavy eyebrows had been black,...
Page 184 - ... standing in the midst of green meadows and cultivated fields, told me that was the place to which I was going. As I paused awhile to contemplate the little rural landscape, I could not help wishing that it had pleased Providence to cast my lot where the rocks were so scarce, and the meadows so green. Lightly saw me at the top of the hill, and making some half a dozen long strides with his long legs, met me more than half way up the mountain side. " Good morning, good morning...
Page 149 - The first born of the passions is love ; and love is of earlier, as well as more vigorous growth, in solitude. I was always in love with some one ; for love was indispensable to my visionary existence. It ended, however, as it began, in abstract dreams and amatory reveries. It is now my pride to know that no woman was ever yet the wiser for my preference. My affection never manifested itself in any other way than by increasing shyness. I never voluntarily came near a young woman at any time ; but...
Page 264 - ... instead of one. This gentleman, however, resolutely claimed his seat. The Committee of Elections instantly and unanimously decided in his favour ; and the vote of the House forthwith dislodged the unfortunate Plutarch, without giving him a single opportunity to immortalize himself. It happened, however, that on the first day of the session, he was enabled to utter the beginning of a sentence, which would probably have had no end, if it had not been cut short as it was by the Speaker. On the presentation...
Page 178 - ... Broken windows, broken chairs, and a broken table. But there was plenty of fresh air, and I slept that night on a straw bed, and studied astronomy through the holes in the roof. The dead silence, too, that reigned in this lonely retreat, contrasted with the ceaseless racket of the town, to which I had been so long accustomed, had a mournful effect on my spirits, and disposed my mind to gloomy thoughts of the future. The fatigue of my journey, however, at last overpowered me, and I fell asleep...
Page 170 - So saying, he yawned once more, and went to see which way the wind blew. My readers, if they are such readers as alone I address myself to, in looking back on the progress of whatever wisdom and experience time and opportunity may have bestowed on them, will have observed that a particular branch of knowledge, or a special conviction of the understanding, will often baffle our pursuit for a long while. We grope in the dark — we lose ourselves — and...

Bibliographic information