Rhoda (Volume 3); A Novel

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1816 Excerpt: ...friends: there will be no evening coterie, and I shall be tot-night in public, with Lady Emily. All this, I believe, comes within your prescribed limits; and you will always find me equally ready to conform to any explicit commands that you may lay upon me. The morning was uy this time so far advanced, that Rhoda had no longer leisure to brood over her disquietudes. She hastened to her toilette, and as she descended to her carriage she stopt to deposit her note in Sir James's dressing room, feeling a repugnance to giving such a proof to the servant, that she had any thing of moment to say to him, which he had refused to hear. On removing some papers, with which she meant so to conceal her note as to draw Sir James's attention to the place, she discovered the case of a miniature picture; she opened it, and saw that it contained a painting of herself, which had been taken immediately after her marriage, and which she knew Sir James had once highly valued, for the beautiful resemblance that it bore to the lovely features of the original. She fancied that the glass was dimmed and damped: Could it be by the tears of Sir James? She rubbed it till it became brighter, and never, certainly, did she gaze on her own features with more pleasure. The resentments of Rhoda were ever short-lived. Lady Emily may be mistaken! thought she;-- this face may not yet have lost its powers. Shall I defeat its influence by any indulgence of a resentment, however just? And against whom does my spirit rebel?--Against the man whom I have solemnly vowed to honour and obey. What am I about? Do I mean to throw away at once my happiness and my principles?--I will not go to Lady Emily's. And as she said these words, she was almost in the act of tearing her not...