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latest version of from
Gutenberg (Many thanks to Sandra Laythorpe
and others)
March
21, 1863, page 394Countess
Kate - by
the Author of 'The Heir of Redclyffe'.
(Mozley.) Countess
Kate is a little girl who at the opening of
the story springs to the style and dignity
of the Countess of Caergwent, from the humble
position of plain Kate Umfraville, an orphan
dependent for protection and education on
her charitable uncle, Mr Wardour, who is the
clergyman of St. James's, Oldburgh. On
her elevation to the peerage, Kate is taken
from the country parsonage, and brought to
London, where she is placed under the charge
of two excessively decorous old-maid aunts,
Ladies Barbara and Jane Umfraville, who live
in Bruton Street, and by the aid of carriage,
horses, butler, and lady's-maid, protect their
delicate constitutions and patrician tastes
from close intercourse with the vulgar. The
principal fun of the tale turns on the excruciating
torture which these fastidious gentlewomen
experience in witnessing and vainly endeavouring
to correct the hoydenish manners and rustic
style of the niece who, in a scarcely intelligible
manner, has become the possessor of the family
honours. Goaded into fury by Aunt Barbara's
incessant reproofs and lectures, Countess
Kate seizes an opportunity for escaping from
the genteel captivity of Bruton Street, slips
on bonnet and cloak, runs to the nearest cab,
drives to a railway station, and makes good
speed to her old friends at Oldburgh, where
she is received with as much surprise as kindness.
What more is told of little Kate's adventures
we need not indicate. The
story will amuse children; and here and there
it contains a scrap of good writing and pleasant
reading, but on the whole it deserves more
censure than praise. Readers will complain
with reason, who buy 'Countess Kate,' trusting
that it has some of the good qualities which
won deserved popularity for 'The Heir of Redclyffe'.
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