Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-02-06
Prom All the Year Round.''
Too Hard upon my Aunt.

At five o'clock in the evening Of the 3Ist
of December, 1919, Mr.. Twinch, of Grosve-
nor Street, rushed into his dining room with
a packet IN his hand, sat down at little
Davenport writing table in the window, and
scrubbed off the following letter:
+" Ny dear Madam am delighted to say
that have been able to keep my word, and
herewith send you what you require.
With best compliments, am,
Faithfully yours,
PAYNHAN TwINcH."
This note he folded round the packet plac-
ed both in stout envelope. which he address
ed " Miss l.. PembertOn, The Grove, Heavi-
tree, near Exeter" carried the packet to a
neighbOring receiving office, caused it to be
duly registered, and with the receipt in his
pocket returned home.
Miss Letitia Pemberton was NV fathers
Youngest sister, maiden lady OF middle age,
kind amiable, and accomplished, whom ev-
erybOdy liked for her good temper, and whom
many of US younger ones regarded with deep
interest on account of what we were pleased
to term "her romance" For when Aunt
Letitia was girl she was very pretty, and
was a county beauty, and reigning host for
miles around she had scores of admirers,
but behaved very scornlully to all of them,
and she had acquired the reputation of being
thoroughly heartless, when she chose to tum-
BILE head over ears in love with a Mr.. Butter
worth, fair haired, mild, spOoney young man
who had come up from Oxford to read with
INV father during the long vacation. Of
course Mr.. ButterwOrth responded, and the
affair was progressing to the great satisfac-
tiOn of the lovers, and the intense delight of
my father, who thereby was relieved from
much of Mr.. ButterwOrth's society, and all
his tuition But when my grandfather, who
was what Is called . one of the old school"
remarkably peppery veteran, discovered what
was going on, he showed Mr.. Butterworth the
door, and with great difficulty restrained from
kicking him through it. Aunt Letitia wept
and sulky by turns, but it was no use, and
soon afterwards my father heard that Butter
worth had left Oxford, and gone out as pri-
vate secretary and companion to an old gen
tleman who held some high official appoint
ment in South America Miss Letitia re-
doubled her lamentations, but that was the
last that was heard of Mr.. ButterwOrth.
Until years after, when my grandfather had
been long since dead, my father long since
married, myself and my sister long since born,
and my Aunt Letitia long since resident with
us at the Grove, my father, in London on
some business, accidentally ran against port
ly gentlemen in the Strand, who, turning
round with hurt dignity, revealed the features
of the mild Mr.. ButterwOrth of by gone years
He told my father that his patron had died,
leaving him his fortune: that he had married
in South Americe, but that his wife had died
within twelvemonth of their union, and
that he had come home to settle in England.
lie asked my father for all his news, and
wound up by saying, "And-Miss Letitia-is
-she-still-?" And my father said she
was-stiil-but that Butterworth had better
see for himself. This proposition seemed to
Mr.. ButterwOrth entirely. He should be in
Devonshire about the end of the year; he had
business at Exeter. Finally, it was decided
that he should dine on New Years day at the
Grove, and pass the night there.
When my father came home with the news.
Ny aunt Letitia was TREMENDOUSLY affected
We noticed next morning that a kind of dust
trap of black lace, skewered on to a comb
which she was in habit of wearing at the
back of her head, had been got rid of, and
that she had mass of plaits in its place; we
noticed that the usual night shirt hemming
for the charity children had been put aside,
and that a large portion of the day was spent
in devouring the pOetical works of the late
Lord Byron, in a Galignani Edition brought
from Paris by my father many years before.
We nOticed-we could not help noticing
how pretty she looked with her bright COM
plexion, her white teeth, her neat little figure,
and as the days passed by she seemed to grow
more and more animated. One day, however
Il remember il perfectly, it was the 10th of
December, and we had boiled beef for din
ner-my aunt was taken. dreadfully i'll; it
was at the dinner-table, when, without the
slightest warning, she suddenly gave a sharp
scream, placed her handkerchiefto her mouth,
and rushed from the room. My mother fol-
lowed, and so did my sister, but the latter
had my aunt's bedroom door slammed in her
face. When my mother rejoined US, she had
a little private conversation with INV father,
and we were then told that aunt Letitia was
very i'll, and would probably have to keep her
room for many days. All sorts of invalids
delieaeies, both, soups, calls foot jelly, and
sage buildings, were sent up to her, but she
did net appear amongst US, and it seemed
very doubtful whether she would be able to
do so by the time of Mr.. Butterworth's visit.
| must now change the venue, as the law
yers call il, of my story. At midnight, on
the night when Mr.. Twinch posted his letter,
the down night mail running between Pad
dington and Plymouth was within ten miles
of the station at Exeter. In the travelling