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Novels and Tales in Seven Volumes. Vol. Vi. Ruth and Other Tales.
Novels and Tales in Seven Volumes Vol Vi Ruth and Other Tales Author:MRS. GASKELL General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1882 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: MR HAKKISON'S CONFESSIONS. CHAPTER I. The fire was burning gaily. My wife had just gone upstairs to put baby to bed. Charles sat opposite to me, looking very brown and handsome. It was pleasant enough that we should feel sure of spending some weeks under the same roof, a thing which we had never done since we were mere boys. I felt too lazy to talk, Bo I ate walnuts and looked into the fire. But Charles grew restless. " Now that your wife is gone upstairs, Will, you must tell me what I've wanted to ask you ever since I saw her this morning. Tell me all about the wooing and winning. I want to have the receipt for getting such a spicy little wife of my own. Your letters only gave the barest details. So set to, man, and tell me every particular." " If I tell you all, it will be a long story." "Never fear. If I get tired, I can go to sleep, and dream that I am back again, a lonely bachelor, in Ceylon; and I can waken up when you have done, to know that I am under your roof. Dash away, man! ' Once upon a time, a gallant young bachelor . ' There's a beginning for you !" " Well, then, ' Once upon a time, a gallant young bachelor' was sorely puzzled where to settle, when he had completed his education as a surgeon -- I must speak in the first person ; I cannot go on as a gallant young bachelor. I had just finished walking the hospitals when you went to Ceylon, and, if you remember, I wanted to go abroad like you, and thought of offering myself as a ship-surgeon ; but I found I should rather lose caste in my profession ; so I hesitated, and while I was hesitating, I received a letter from my father's cous...« less