Random Sequence

"But how to get out of the present dilemma was a serious question. The idea of ending a forenoon that had been elysian in its delights by a row home with this bedlamite -- thus he termed her in his irritated musings -- facing him, and chattering like a score of magpies, in place of the dear and beauteous vision that had blessed his eyes, and the soft, musical accents that had wooed his hearing for hours past, was intolerable; yet there sat Miss Jemima, a stubborn fact, and one hard to rid himself of."
--from "Taking Boarders for Company" by Marion Harland, in Godey's Lady Book and Magazine, October 1864

(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)

Some cool, more-or-less archaic words in this passage:

"forenoon" = late morning
"elysian" = blissful; delightful
"bedlamite" = a lunatic

And then there's "beauteous", meaning beautiful. We don't say "beauteous" anymore, at least not with a straight face.