Tales of Fashionable Life Vivian Author:Maria Edgeworth Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: to her—the only point on which she had yet seen him tried—decided her to trust to the persuasive voice of love and hope, and to believe that Russell's friendship... more » had, in this instance, been too harsh or too timorous in its forebodings. Nothing now delayed the marriage of Vivian and Selina but certain legal rites, which were to be performed on his coming of age, and before marriage settlements could be drawn ;—and the parties were doomed to wait for the arrival of some trustee who was with his regiment abroad. All these delays Vivian, of course, cursed : but, upon the whole, they were borne by him with heroic patience, and by Selina with all the tranquillity of confiding love, happy in the present, and not too anxious for the future. CHAPTER II. " My dear Russell," said Vivian, " love shall not make me forget friendship; before I marry, I must see you provided for. Believe me, this was the first —one of the first pleasures I promised myself, in becoming master of a good fortune. Other thoughts, I confess, have put it out of my head; so now let me tell you at once. I hate paltry surprises with my friends: I have, you know—or rather, probably, you do not know, for you are the most disinterested fellow upon earth—I have an excellent living in my gift; itshall be yours; consider it as such from this moment. If I knew a more deserving man. I would give it to him, upon my honour; so you can't refuse me. The incumbent can't live long; he is an old, very old, infirm man ; you'll have the living in a year or two, and, in the mean time, stay with me. I ask it as a favour from a friend, and you see how much I want a friend of your firm character; and I hope you see, also, how much I can value, in others, the qualities in which I am myself deficient." Russell was much pleased and t...« less