Sketches New and Old


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Again Aurelia was moved to break the engagement, but again love  
triumphed, and she set the day forward and gave him another chance to  
reform.  
And again misfortune overtook the unhappy youth. He lost one arm by the  
premature discharge of a Fourth of July cannon, and within three months  
he got the other pulled out by a carding-machine. Aurelia's heart was  
almost crushed by these latter calamities. She could not but be deeply  
grieved to see her lover passing from her by piecemeal, feeling, as she  
did, that he could not last forever under this disastrous process of  
reduction, yet knowing of no way to stop its dreadful career, and in her  
tearful despair she almost regretted, like brokers who hold on and lose,  
that she had not taken him at first, before he had suffered such an  
alarming depreciation. Still, her brave soul bore her up, and she  
resolved to bear with her friend's unnatural disposition yet a little  
longer.  
Again the wedding-day approached, and again disappointment overshadowed  
it; Caruthers fell ill with the erysipelas, and lost the use of one of  
his eyes entirely. The friends and relatives of the bride, considering  
that she had already put up with more than could reasonably be expected  
of her, now came forward and insisted that the match should be broken  
off; but after wavering awhile, Aurelia, with a generous spirit which did  
her credit, said she had reflected calmly upon the matter, and could not  
discover that Breckinridge was to blame.  
317  


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315 316 317 318 319

Quick Jump
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