THE RABBITS’ QUARTERS.
STRANGER THAN FICTION.
HUGH BRONTË’S COURTSHIP. THE ELOPEMENT OF HUGH BRONTË AND ALICE MCCLORY.
Unpublished Chapters from “The Brontës in Ireland.”
By Doctor William Wright.
Note.—“The Brontës in Ireland” will be issued in book form by D. Appleton & Co., after the serial publication is concluded in McClure’s Magazine.
I.
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT.
The visit to McClory’s in County Down was another momentous step in the life of Hugh Brontë. He had shaken off the nightmare of cruel slavery. His work, mostly in the open air, suited him. He was well paid, had good food and clothing, and in two years the starved and ragged boy had become a large, handsome, well-dressed man. Like most handsome people, Hugh knew that he was handsome, and the resources of Dundalk were taxed in those days to the utmost to set off to perfection his manly and stately figure.
On Christmas Eve Hugh Brontë drove up furiously in a Newry gig to the house of McClory in Ballynaskeagh. He was a somewhat vain man, and fond of admiration, and, no doubt, as he approached McClory’s thatched cottage, with his pockets full of money, and with the self-confidence which prosperity breeds, he meant to flutter the house with his greatness.
But a surprise was in store for him. The cottage door was opened, in response to his somewhat boisterous knock, by a young woman of dazzling beauty. Hugh Brontë, previous to his flight, had seen few women except his Aunt Mary, and in the days of his freedom he had become acquainted only with lodging-house keepers and County Louth women who carried their fowl and eggs to Dundalk fairs and markets. He had scarcely ever seen a comely girl, and never in his life any one who had any attractions for him.