The Three Brides

The Three Brides

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Three Brides, by Charlotte M.
Yonge
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Title: The Three Brides
Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
Release Date: June 1, 2004 [eBook #12485]
Language: English
Character set encoding: US-ASCII
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE THREE
BRIDES***
Transcribed by David Price, email [email protected]

THE THREE BRIDES
CHAPTER I
The Model And Her Copies

There is sure another Flood toward, that so many couples are coming to
the Ark.--As You Like It
"Ah! it is a pitiable case!"
"What case, boys?"
"Yours, mother, with such an influx of daughters-in-law."
"I suspect the daughters-in-law think themselves more to be pitied."
"As too many suns in one sphere."
"As daughters-in-law at all."
"There's a ready cure for that. Eh, Charlie?"
"The sight of the mother-in-law."
"Safe up on the shelf? Ha, you flattering boys!"
"Well, each of the three bridegrooms has severally told us that his bride
was a strong likeness of the mother, so she will have the advantage of
three mirrors!"
"Ay, and each married solely for her benefit. I wonder which is the
truest!"
"Come, Baby Charles, don't you take to being cynical and satirical,"
said the mother. "It would be more to the purpose to consider of the
bringing them home. Let me see, Raymond and his Cecil will be at
Holford's Gate at 5.30. They must have the carriage in full state. I
suppose Brewer knows."
"Trust the ringers for scenting it out."
"Julius and Rosamond by the down train at Willansborough, at 4.50.
One of you must drive old Snapdragon in the van for them. They will
not mind when they understand; but there's that poor wife of Miles's, I

wish she could have come a few days earlier. Her friend, Mrs. Johnson,
is to drop her by the express at Backsworth, at 3.30."
"Inconvenient woman!"
"I imagine that she cannot help it; Mrs. Johnson is going far north, and
was very good in staying with her at Southampton till she could move.
Poor little thing! alone in a strange country! I'll tell you what! One of
you must run down by train, meet her, and either bring her home in a
fly, or wait to be picked up by Raymond's train. Take her Miles's
letter."
The two young men glanced at one another in dismay, and the elder
said, "Wouldn't nurse do better?"
"No, no, Frank," said the younger, catching a distressed look on their
mother's face, "I'll look up Miles's little African. I've rather a curiosity
that way. Only don't let them start the bells under the impression that
we are a pair of the victims. If so, I shall bolt."
"Julius must be the nearest bolting," said Frank. "How he accomplished
it passes my comprehension. I shall not believe in it till I see him.
There, then, I'll give orders. Barouche for the squire, van for the rector,
and the rattling fly for the sailor's wife. So wags the course of human
life," chanted Frank Charnock, as he strolled out of the room.
"Thanks, Charlie," whispered his mother. "I am grieved for that poor
young thing. I wish I could go myself. And, Charlie, would you cast an
eye round, and see how things look in their rooms? You have always
been my daughter."
"Ah! my vocation is gone! Three in one day! I wonder which is the best
of the lot. I bet upon Miles's Cape Gooseberry.--Tired, mother darling?
Shall I send in nurse? I must be off, if I am to catch the 12.30 train."
He bent to kiss the face, which was too delicately shaped and tinted to
look old enough to be in expectation of three daughters-in-law. No,
prostrate as she was upon pillows, Mrs. Charnock Poynsett did not look

as if she had attained fifty years. She was lady of Compton Poynsett in
her own right; and had been so early married and widowed, as to have
been the most efficient parental influence her five sons had ever known;
and their beautiful young mother had been the object of their adoration
from the nursery upwards, so that she laughed at people who talked of
the trouble and anxiety of rearing sons.
They had all taken their cue from their senior, who had always been
more to his mother than all the world besides. For several years, he
being as old of his age as she was young, Mr. and Mrs. Charnock
Poynsett, with scarcely eighteen years between their ages, had often
been taken by strangers for husband and