Coming Out - 1828 Author:Jane Porter 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: t 20 , COMING OUT. He continued for some time to walk hurryingly and breathlessly,—still under the grasp of sudden agony,— still questioning whether he was... more » not walking in a horrid dream, hoping evWy moment to awake, and find again the precious anticipations which his present vision had caused to disappear:—still haunted by that brighter vision of beauty and sensibility which he had just beheld in Alicia, and which for the time had disordered every senses and, quickened every pulse. Jocelyn Hastings was of an ardent temperament ori- ginally: principle and practice bad long disciplined it;— but in a moment like this, nature resumed her power, and his whole being was one tumult of warring passions and principles. Lord St. Lawrence's voice repeating in the thrilling tone of happy tenderness, " My Alicia !" seemed stinging his ear : he tried to fly from the irritating sense in vain. This unexpected rencontre had crushed every fond imagination connected with her whose secret remembrance had lain like balm upon his heart, so long as he believed her remaining in the retirement where they had parted. It is true, when he left Castle Barry, he had gone, assured that her parents' views were high for her ; his own fortune lost, and his prospects limited to a. better kind cf curacy or small living at the best:—but since then, happier views had burst on him, and as they were realized, wishes and hopes hitherto forbidden had once more been indulged. A debt from a mercantile concern abroad, which had been bequeathed to him by his deceased uncle, and which at the time no one expected could be paid, was almost miraculously recovered, putting him into quiet possession of twelve thousand pounds. In addition to this piece of good fortune, a handsome, living was promised to him by the fat...« less