Frederic and Elfrida (Manuscript)/Chapter 1
Chapter the First.
The Uncle of Elfrida was the FatherMother of Frederic; in other words, they were first cousins by the Father's side.
Being both born in one day and both brought up at one school, it was not wonderfull that they should look on each other with something more than bare politenness. They loved with mutual sincerity but were both determined not to transgress the rules of Propriety by owning their attachment, either to the object beloved or . to any one else.
They were exceedingly handsome and so
much alike, that it was not every one
who knew them apart.—Nay even their
most intimate freinds had nothing to
distinguish them by, but the shape of
the face, the colour of the Eye, the length
of the Nose and the difference of the complexion.
Elfrida had an intimate freind to whom, being on a visit to an Aunt, she wrote the following Letter.
To Miss Drummond
"Dear Charlotte"
"I should be obliged to you, if you would buy me, during your stay with Mrs Williamson, a new and fashionable Bonnet, to suit the complexion of your"
Charlotte, whose character was a willingness to oblige every one, when she returned into the Country, brought her Freind the wished-for Bonnet, and so ended this little adventure, much to the satisfaction of all parties.
On her return to Crankhumdunberry
(of which sweet village her father was
Rector) Charlotte was received with the
greatest Joy by Frederic and Elfrida, who, after
pressing her alternately to their Bosoms,
proposed to her to take a walk in a
Grove of Poplars which led from the Parsonage
to a verdant Lawn enamelled
by with a variety of variegated flowers and
watered by a purling Stream, brought
from the Valley of Tempé by a passage
under ground. In this Grove they had scarcely remained
above nine hours, when they were
suddenly agreably surprized by hearing
a most delightfull voice warble the
following stanza.
Song.
That Damon was in love with me
I once thought and beleiv'd
But now that he is not I see,
I fear I was deceiv'd.
No sooner were the lines finished than they beheld by a turning in the grove two elegant young women leaning on each other's arm, who immediately on perceiving them, took a different path and disappeared from their sight.