In addition to which charitable speeches, Rupert received many long lectures, and many kind letters, warning him against the fatal step he had so unwisely determined upon.
Opposition is often suicidal of itself, by bringing about the very event it most deprecates. In the present case, certainly, it did not retard the anticipated nuptials, for upon a certain bright morning in May, Rupert bore off his lovely young bride from her gay, fashionable home to his own quiet little nook in the country.
When Anna exchanged her magnificent satin and blonde for a beautiful traveling dress, had any one demanded what were her ideas of the new life she was now entering upon, she would have discoursed most eloquently upon a cottage ornée, buried amid honeysuckles and roses, where, on the banks of a beautiful stream, beneath the shadow of some wide-spreading tree, she could recline and listen to the warbling of the birds, or, more delightful still, to the music of Rupert’s voice, as he chanted in her ear some romantic legend of true love—from this charming repose to be aroused only by a summons from some blooming Hebe, presiding over the less fanciful arrangements of the cottage, to banquet, like the birds, upon berries and flowers!
Had the same inquiry been made of Rupert, as he looked with pride and love upon the young creature at his side, he would have traced a scene of calm domestic enjoyment, over which his lovely Anna was enthroned both arbitress and queen. To grace his home all her accomplishments were to be united with her native purity and goodness—her good sense was to guide, her approbation inspire his future career, and her sympathy alleviate all the “ills which flesh is heir to!”
This was certainly expecting a great deal of a fashionable young beauty, whose life might be summed up in the simple word—pleasure; and whose ideas of country life were gathered from very romantic novels, or perhaps a season at Saratoga! But then Rupert was very much in love—walking blindfolded, as it were, into the snares of Cupid!
One thing certainly the fair young bride brought to the cottage, along with her accomplishments—viz., a large trunk, filled with the most beautiful and tasteful dresses which fashion could invent—laces, handkerchiefs of gossamer texture, gloves the most delicate, fairy slippers, brooches, bracelets, rings, shawls, mantles, not omitting a twenty dollar hat, with bridal veil of corresponding value. Such was the trousseau of the young physician’s wife!
Anna herself had no idea that such costly and fanciful articles were not perfectly proper for her new sphere, and if her mother thought otherwise, as most probably she did, her desire to impress the “country people” with a sense of her daughter’s importance, and of the great condescension it must have been on her part to marry a country doctor, overcame her better judgment.
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CHAPTER II.
“Look, my dearest Anna, yonder is our pleasant little village!” exclaimed Rupert, pointing as he spoke to a cluster of pretty houses, nestling far down in the green valley below, now for the first time visible as the carriage gained the summit of a hill, while here and there the eye caught bright glimpses of a lovely stream winding along the luxuriant landscape.