Sketches by Boz 5. "Sentiment"

Originally published in Bell's Weekly Magazine, on 7th June, 1934, "Sentiment" (SB47) presents us Dickens at its least sentimental.  If it's meant to be - the sketch seems to imply - it will be, although there doesn't seem to be much hope one way or another to Miss Lavinia Brook Dingwall/Mrs. Butler.

"Mr. and Mrs. Butler are at present rusticating in a small cottage at Ball's pond, pleasantly situated in the immediate vicinity of a brick-field. They have no family. Mr. Theodosius looks very important, and writes incessantly; but, in consequence of a gross combination on the part of publishers, none of his productions appear in print. His young wife begins to think that ideal misery is preferable to real unhappiness; and that a marriage, contracted in haste, and repented at leisure, is the cause of more substantial wretchedness than she ever anticipated."