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He thought of the scurrying busy-bodies in the 'City, and he thought of the Widow Jequier attacking life so restlessly in her garden at that very minute. That other sentence of the old Vicar floated though his mind: 'the grandeur of toil and the insignificance of acquisition.... Far overhead two giant buzzards circled quietly, ceaselessly watching from the blue.
She differed from other busy-bodies in this, that she now and then reflected: not deeply; or of course I should take care not to print it. "It is strange," said she, "how things come round and about, Life is but a whirligig. Leastways, we poor women, our lives are all cut upon one pattern. Wasn't I for washing out my Gerard's mole in his young days?
'She'll stand any amount of talk or anything else from me, he said to himself often, 'because she knows I'm really in earnest; but she wouldn't stand it for a moment from those well-meaning, undiscriminating, religious busy-bodies, who are so awfully anxious about other people's souls, though they never seem for a single minute to consider in any way other people's feelings. After a little careful hunting among his various acquaintances, however, he found at last a place that would exactly suit Selah at a stationer's in Netting Hill; and there he put her with full confidence that Selah would do the work entrusted to her well and ably, if not from conscientiousness, at least from personal pride, 'which, after all, Roland soliloquised dreamily, 'is as good a substitute for the genuine article as one can reasonably expect to find in poor fallen human nature.
A lot of busy-bodies had by this time been attracted by the wrangle, and these heard the doctor's accusations in full, but gathered a very imperfect notion of Cardan's reply. He indignantly denied this charge, and in his own account of the scene he affirms that he won the approbation of all who listened, by the moderation of his bearing and speech.
Here he has been surrounded by friends, officious busy-bodies, who, intending no doubt to help him, have got into the shell, in place of lending him a hand, till their added load was too much, and the unfortunate ant has been obliged to loose its hold and let them go, shell and all!
The sooner we get rid of negro novels and village gossip, and neighborhood slander, and busy-bodies, and idlers, and loafers, and liars, and the whole crew, who have nothing else to do, but to meddle with people's business, the better. God speed the day when we shall all find better employment. But to return to the evils of slavery.
There were some fine, noble women on his board, but also some interfering busy-bodies, who were always starting disagreeable discussions, such as how much sugar a little child should be allowed and how important it was that vanity should not be encouraged in the girls. Business and finance were not Dr. Weston's strong points.
I think no Venetian and scarcely any Italian cares much for such differences; and when, a year ago, people in England were writing to the <i>Times</i> about the whole business and holding meetings to protest against it the dear children of the lagoon so far as they heard or heeded the rumour thought them partly busy-bodies and partly asses.
"What a peculiar wedding," said every one; "just like the Wymans, they never do anything like any one else." "What he found to admire in Miss Evans, is more than I can see," said one of the busy-bodies who favored Miss Vernon with a call on a certain memorable morning. "He's a curious man," said an old lady, between a yawn and a smile, "and nobody ever could understand him."
More than all, the first breath of liberty after long restraint had enlarged and widened her determination to be always free, in spite of the world, and society, and the drone of the busy-bodies' gossip. In her heart, the memory of Bosio had grown in dignity, till it was solemn and imposing out of all proportion with what the man himself had been, even as Veronica had known him.
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