Stephen, finding
the place and proceedings in keeping with the sombre colours of
his mind, waited there still.
'Simeon, I suppose you can mind poor Lady Elfride, and how she ran
away with the actor?' said John Smith, after awhile. 'I think it
fell upon the time my father was sexton here. Let us see--where
is she?'
'Here somewhere,' returned Simeon, looking round him.
'Why, I've got my arms round the very gentlewoman at this moment.'
He lowered the end of the coffin he was holding, wiped his face,
and throwing a morsel of rotten wood upon another as an indicator,
continued: 'That's her husband there. They was as fair a couple
as you should see anywhere round about; and a good-hearted pair
likewise. Ay, I can mind it, though I was but a chiel at the
time. She fell in love with this young man of hers, and their
banns were asked in some church in London; and the old lord her
father actually heard 'em asked the three times, and didn't notice
her name, being gabbled on wi' a host of others. When she had
married she told her father, and 'a fleed into a monstrous rage,
and said she shouldn' hae a farthing. Lady Elfride said she
didn't think of wishing it; if he'd forgie her 'twas all she
asked, and as for a living, she was content to play plays with her
husband. This frightened the old lord, and 'a gie'd 'em a house
to live in, and a great garden, and a little field or two, and a
carriage, and a good few guineas.
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