Lovel the Widower Author:William Makepeace Thackeray General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1861 Original Publisher: Smith, Elder Subjects: Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / General Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be... more » 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 books for free. Excerpt: 215 CHAPTER VI. Cecilia's Successor. ONSIEUE ET HONORE LEC- TEUK ! I see, as perfectly as if you were sitting opposite to me, the scorn depicted on your noble countenance when you read my confession that I, Charles Bat- chelor, Esquire, did burglariously enter the premises of Edward Drencher, Esquire, M. B. C. S. I. (phew! the odious pestle-grinder, I never couldbear him!) and break open, and read a certain letter, his property. I may have been wrong, but I am candid. I tell my misdeeds; some fellows hold their tongues. Besides, my good man, consider the temptation, and the horrid insight into the paper which Bedford's report had already given me. Would you like to be told that the girl of your heart was playing at fast and loose with it, had none of her own, or had given hers to another ? I don't want to make a Mrs. Robin Gray of any woman, and merely because " her mither presses her sair" to marry against her will. "If Miss Prior," thought I, "prefers this lint-scraper to me, ought I to balk. her? He is younger, and stronger, certainly, than myself. Some people may consider him handsome. (By the way, what a remarkable thing it is about many women, that, in affairs of the heart, they don't seem to care or understand whether a man is a gentleman or not.) It may be it is my superior fortune and social station which may induce Elizabeth to waver in her choice between me and my bleeding, bolusing, toothdrawing rival. If so, and I a...« less