Frederic and Elfrida (Manuscript)/Chapter 5
Chapter the fifth
At the end of three days Captain Roger and
Rebecca were united and immediately after
the Ceremony set off in the Stage Waggon for
the Captains seat in Buckinghamshire.
The parents of Elfrida, alltho' the yearnestly wished to see her married to Frederic before they died, yet knowing the delicate frame of her mind could ill bear the least excertion and rightly judging that naming her wedding day would be too great a one, forebore to press her on the subject.
Weeks and Fortnights flew away without gaining the least ground; the Cloathes grew out of fashion and at length Capt: Roger and his Lady arrived, to pay a visit to their Mother and introduce to her their beautifull Daughter of eighteen.
Elfrida, who had found her former acquaintance were growing too old and too ugly to be any longer agreable, was rejoiced to hear of the arrival of so pretty a girl as Eleanor with whom she determined to form the strictest freindship.
But the Happiness she had expected from an acquaintance with Eleanor, she soon found was not to be received, for she had not only the mortification of finding herself treated by her as little less than an old woman, but had actually the horror of perceiving a growing paſsion in the Bosom of Frederic for the Daughter of the amiable Rebecca.
The instant she had the first idea of such an attachment, she flew to Frederic and in a manner truly heroick, spluttered out to him her intention of being married the next Day.
To one in his predicament who possessed
less personal Courage than Frederic was
master of, such a speech would have been
Death; but he not being the least terrified
boldly replied,
"Dammé Elfrida you may be married tomorrow
but I wont."
This answer distressed her too much for her delicate Constitution. She accordingly fainted and was in such a hurry to have a succession of fainting fits, that she had scarcely patience enough to recover from one before she fell into another. Tho', in any threatening Danger to his Life or Liberty, Frederic was as bold as brass yet in other respects his heart was as soft as cotton and immediately on hearing of the dangerous way Elfrida was in, he flew to her and finding her better than he had been taught to expect, was united to her Forever—.
Finis.