Hemans and L. E. L., and had got by heart most
of the effusions in "Affection's Keepsake" and "Friendship's
Offering." Nay, she had been, in her early youth, suspected, more
than vaguely, of contributing fugitive verse to a periodical known as
the _Household Packet_. She had even, many years ago, met the Poet
Wordsworth "at the dinner-table," as she expressed it, "of a common
friend," and was never tired of relating how the great man had spoken
of the prunes as "pruins," and said "Would you obleege me with the
salt?"
With such qualifications for communion with nature it is not
wonderful that, on this particular afternoon, Miss Limpenny should
have wandered pensively along the river's bank, and surrendered
herself to its romantic charm. Possessed by the spirit of the place
and hour, she even caught herself straying by the extreme brink, and
repeating those touching lines from "Affection's Keepsake":--
"The eye roams widely o'er glad Nature's face,
To mark each varied and delightful scene;
The simple and magnificent we trace,
While loveliness and brightness intervene;
Oh! everywhere is something found to--"
At this point Miss Limpenny's gaze lost its dreamy expansiveness, and
grew rigid with horror. Immediately before her feet, and
indelicately confronting her, lay a suit of man's clothing.
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