Georgiana

“ No, dearest Georgiana, you came so nearly perfect from the hand of Nature, that this slightest possible defect—which we hesitate whether to term a defect or a beauty—shocks me, as being the visible mark of earthly imperfection."
"Shocks you, my husband!" cried Georgiana, deeply hurt; at first reddening with momentary anger, but then bursting into tears. "Then why did you take me from my mother's side? You cannot love what shocks you!" ”

“ As I set my own thoughts to journey after hers, suddenly the scene in the room changed, and I beheld Georgiana as an old, old lady, with locks of silver on her temples, spectacles, a tiny sock stuck through with needles on her knee, and her face finely wrinkled, but still blooming with unconquerable gayety and youth.
"How sweet that smoke is, Georgiana," I said, rousing us both, and feeling sure that she will understand me in whatsoever figure I may speak. "And how much we are wasting when we change this old oak back into his elements—smoke and light, heat and ashes. ”

“ Georgiana's sweet nature will be perverted; all that is vain and frivolous in her will be brought out; she will constantly be disappointed in the vain endeavour to make pleasure a substitute for content, and, craving for excitement. Vain and heartless, the world will leave us little trace of the lovely mind as of the lovely face. ”

“ Externally, indeed, Lady Georgiana still showed her bright playfulness of manner, and keen interest in all around her, so that the charm of her society was very great, but her soul was the more entirely absorbed in religion and in charity, doing the most menial offices for the sick poor and throwing herself into the pleasures of little children. ”

“ Georgiana, tugging with both strong young arms, hauled the big express package into the living-room of the old manse, and shut the door with a bang. Breathing rapidly from her exertions, her cheeks warmly flushed, her dark eyes glowing, she stood over the package, looking at her father with a curious sort of smile not wholly compounded of joy and satisfaction. ”

“ Georgiana, who had a spoiled temper, a very acrid spite, a captious and insolent carriage, was universally indulged. Her beauty, her pink cheeks and golden curls, seemed to give delight to all who looked at her, and to purchase indemnity for every fault. ”

“ Presenting Stuart to her cousin, it occurred to Georgiana to wonder as to the impression each must make upon the other. Jeannette was wearing a frock of a peculiar shade of blue which the firelight and lamplight, instead of dulling, seemed to make almost to glow. It was the sort of apparently simple attire which is the product of high art, and in it, sitting just where all lights seemed to play together upon hair and cheek and perfect throat, the visitor was, as Georgiana owned to herself, certainly worth looking at. ”

“ Ah, I remember," said Georgiana, faintly; and she placed her hand over her cheek to hide the terrible mark from her husband's eyes.
"Fear not, dearest!" exclaimed he. "Do not shrink from me! Believe me, Georgiana, I even rejoice in this single imperfection, since it will be such a rapture to remove it."
"O, spare me!" sadly replied his wife. "Pray do not look at it again. I never can forget that convulsive shudder." ”

“ Then Jeannette came back, and Georgiana looked searchingly at her, her own heart experiencing an uncomfortable sort of depression as she saw the exquisite flush on her cousin's cheek and the light in her eyes.
"'Dog in the manger!'" Georgiana sternly reproached herself in her own thoughts. "Isn't it enough for you to have one man looking devotion at you, but you must claim everybody in sight?" ”

“ We must now give some account of Georgiana, Georgia, or Gurgistan, which lies opposite to the last mentioned places, and borders on Mingrelia. The king of Georgia is called Pancratius, and is sovereign of a delightful country, which produces bread, corn, wine, cattle, and all other fruits of the earth in great abundance; and they train up their vines around trees as in Trebisond. The people are very handsome and well made, but they have the most horrid manners, and the worst customs of any people I ever met with. ”

“ But we can save Georgiana, my dear, from a folly alike injurious to her health and her hopes—for hopes she has, poor thing, I am certain; and, if she abstains from the fancy fair when the rest of her family are there, will it not prove her superior sense of propriety and all that? ”

“ No matter how well a bachelor may appear dressed, there is no telling what he conceals upon his person. I feel sure that the retrospective discovery of a ravelling would somehow displease Georgiana as a feature of our courtship. Nature is very stringent here, very guarded, truly universal. Invariably the young men of my day grow lavish in the use of unguents when they are preparing for natural selection; and I flatter myself that even my own garments—in their superficial aspects at least, and during my long pursuit of Georgiana—have not been very far from somewhat slightly ingratiating. ”

“ Since the talk with Sylvia I have called twice more upon the elder Miss Cobb. Upon reflection, it is misleading to refer to this young lady in terms so dry, stiff, and denuded; and I shall drop into Sylvia’s form, and call her simply Georgiana. That looks better—Georgiana! It sounds well, too—Georgiana!
Georgiana, then, is a rather elusive character. The more I see of her the less I understand her. If your nature draws near hers, it retreats. If you pursue, it flies—a little frightened perhaps. ”

“ Everell complimented her upon this timely regard for appearances while travelling by daylight, and declared that no other woman in England could look as well in the costliest finery as Georgiana did in the second-hand wardrobe of a country landlady. Georgiana was pleased at this; but not entirely so, until he added that she should supply herself in better accordance with her own taste at the first opportunity. He then handed her into the chaise, entrusted to the landlord the despatching of the horses and pistols to Foxwell, and gave directions to the postilion. ”

“ So much for his course with regard to Georgiana’s possible opposition. Wherever they should stop, he would allow her no chance of speaking to anybody out of his presence: when she slept, not even a maid should have access to her room, and he himself would rest outside her door, with the key in his pocket. At the first town they should enter on the morrow, he would take measures to supply her with the necessaries she now lacked; he would have to provide a few things for himself also, for he had left his cloak-bag at Foxwell Court. ”

“ I have given your liberty, have performed my part: she is bound by her promise.”
“You see ’tis too late, Everell,” said Georgiana, in whom every other feeling yielded to anxiety for his safety; “you cannot mend matters now. Save yourself—at least that!—for my sake!” ”

“ Georgiana's smile strove to be tolerant. "There are just a few things to be done about the house, and they are best done before breakfast. Off with you, lady cousin!"
"Do you always get up so early?" Jeannette persisted.93
"I have an extraordinary fondness for early rising," Georgiana explained. "It's foolish, of course, but it's an old habit. Good-bye, my dear; my next errand is down cellar," and she vanished from the sight of her guest, quite unable to keep herself longer in hand before the amazing point of view of this daughter of luxury. ”

“ As soon as the man was gone, Everell said to Georgiana:
“I must brave it out with this Squire Thornby, there’s nothing else for it. We must have horses, and soon: ’twere folly to go on afoot, heaven knows how far, till we found another house. As well solicit this gentleman’s help as another’s—’tis all one, he may be no harder to persuade. He has never seen me, and now he shall not see you. Take good heed you don’t show your face, nor shift the cloak, nor let your voice be heard: or ’twill go ill, I promise you.” ”

“ Georgiana, you have led me deeper than ever into the heart of science. I feel myself fully com [Pg 118] petent to render this dear cheek as faultless as its fellow; and then, most beloved, what will be my triumph when I shall have corrected what Nature left imperfect in her fairest work! Even Pygmalion, when his sculptured woman assumed life, felt not greater ecstasy than mine will be."
"It is resolved, then," said Georgiana, faintly smiling. "And, Aylmer, spare me not, though you should find the birthmark take refuge in my heart at last." ”

“ Perfectly willing to be good neighbours. You make me a happy man, by the lord Harry, you do that! Ecod, if you knew as how I’ve laid awake nights this week past—”
Georgiana, convinced that fair means would not serve, feigned a sudden dizziness, which threw the Squire into such embarrassment, as he knew nothing of what to do for a lady in a faint, that he was very glad to leave the field, though he manfully remained until she declared she was better and would entirely recover if left alone. As soon as she saw him ride out of the courtyard, she went back to Everell in the garden. ”

“ At all events, the journey was resumed in good spirits, and, as no sign of Filson had appeared upon the stretch of road in sight, the lovers began to feel more secure. Georgiana now recalled Filson’s jaded appearance. Perhaps, as on a former occasion, he had yielded to the dictates of tired nature: perhaps he had thrown over the pursuit, and was merely bound for London. As for the horseman with him, that might have been a postboy or a casual fellow traveller. While their own chaise went rolling along at good speed, the lovers felt hope increase within them. ”

“ The young man, then, turned to the right, and, passing the church, quickly left the village behind. He had not met a soul, nor heard a human sound: doubtless people kept within doors on account of the nipping air; as for noise, most of the habitual producers thereof were probably at the ale-house. Presently the way bent to the left, and seemed for awhile to run nearly parallel to the other road. Everell felt Georgiana shiver slightly in his arms. He stopped his horse, and, hearing no sound as of anybody in pursuit, he undid his cloak and contrived to wrap it around her. ”

“ She had, it will be seen, formed her own plans for the future; and had talked of them, too, more than once in the last few days, taking her lover’s acquiescence for granted, as indeed his manifestations of love gave her full right to do. Such initiative on the woman’s side is, by a convention of romancers, assumed to be indelicate; if it be so, then the world must grant that real women are not the delicate creatures they have been taken for. Be that as it may, Georgiana’s dreams of the future had been bitter-sweet hearing to Everell, though he saw nothing indelicate in her mentioning them. ”

“ But it was from men only, or chiefly, that tender ears were used to hearing conversation so free. Had she been subjected to it by one of her own sex, even Sophia Western would have made the protest of a blush. Not that Mrs. Winter’s anecdotes and observations were of the crude plainness of Squire Western’s language. The lady’s tongue was a rapier, not a bludgeon, and there would have been little if anything to reprove in the use she made of it on the present occasion, had Georgiana been absent or ten years older. ”

“ The parting between Georgiana and her kind friends was exceedingly affecting, for the aged have not the faculty which "travels through nor quits us when we die," in any comparison with the young, and at this time the poor girl could not forbear rather to share their evident fears, than give way to those hopes natural to her age. ”

“ Life is full of uncertainty. Who can tell? This separation—it may be final—we may not see each other again.”
“Now you start my fears again!” cried Georgiana. “You puzzle me to-night, Everell. There’s something in your thoughts—something in your heart. Look at me: you are pale—one would suppose a calamity was before us. What is it? Oh, in the name of heaven, tell me!”
“Nay, ’tis nothing, I protest.—And yet you must know too soon. Why not from me? Who has such love for you as I have? who can feel for you as I can? who would try so fondly to console?”
“You are right, Everell ”

“ And when thou art weary, I 'll find thee a bed
Of mosses and flowers to pillow thy head:
And there Georgiana I 'll sit at thy feet,
While my story of love I enraptur'd repeat. ”

“ Miss Bingley was very deeply mortified by Darcy's marriage; but as she thought it advisable to retain the right of visiting at Pemberley, she dropt all her resentment; was fonder than ever of Georgiana, almost as attentive to Darcy as heretofore, and paid off every arrear of civility to Elizabeth.
Pemberley was now Georgiana's home; and the attachment of the sisters was exactly what Darcy had hoped to see. They were able to love each other even as well as they intended. Georgiana had the highest opinion in the world of Elizabeth; ”

“ Constantly since darkness came on I have been watching Georgiana's window for the light of her candle, but there has been no kindly glimmer yet. The only radiance shed upon the gloom outside comes from the heavens. Great cage-shaped white clouds are swung up to the firmament, and within these pale, gentle, imprisoned lightnings flutter feebly to escape, fall back, rise, and try again and again, and fail. ”

“ We must travel night and day till we are safe: to sleep at an inn would give him his opportunity. I see ’tis possible for you to sleep as we go. So then, barring accident, we shall doubtless keep our lead to the end, if he hangs on so far.”
“But if we are delayed at the posting-houses?” said Georgiana. “Sometimes one cannot get horses immediately.”
“Ay, there is one danger,” Everell replied. “But we must gain such a distance that we may lose time and yet be away before he can steal upon us; or at least before he can bring officers about us. We must not tarry long in a garrison town. ”