United States or Palau ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Still, I knew that before night closed, I should have the wished-for opportunity of telling my tale; and, in the meantime, I was quite contented to sit near her, and hear her sweet voice, and be certain that she did not care for Mr Mawley after all! The day could not pass, however, without the curate and I having our customary spar; and it happened in this wise.
"Now, Frank," exclaimed Miss Pimpernell, "I will not have any more sparring between you and Mr Mawley, for I'm sure you've argued enough. It is `the merry Christmas-time, you know; and we ought all to be at peace, and gay and happy, too! What do you say, girls?" "But what shall we do to be merry?" asked Bessie Dasher.
And after all they're Dangerfields, Sir James; and you couldn't expect them to behave like ordinary children," said Mawley in the tone and manner of a persuasive diplomat. "Well, I don't see myself giving them leave to fish," said Sir James. "There are none too many fish in the stream as it is; and a couple of noisy children won't make those easier to catch.
"Broad Church," said Mr Mawley, "holds that every man is at liberty to judge for himself; and that any Sectarian or Unitarian, or heathen, has as much chance of heaven as you or I." "Positively shocking!" said Miss Spight, in virtuous indignation at any nonconformist being esteemed as worthy of future salvation as herself. "Oliver Wendell Holmes," I said, "gives a truer exposition.
"For my part," said Mr Mawley, "I do not think we ought to speak about religious matters in this sort of way, and make them subjects for general conversation." "I don't agree with you, Mawley," said the vicar, "the truth is not so brittle that we should be afraid of handling it; if religion were more openly discussed and brought into our daily life, I believe we should be all the better for it."
"Well, Frank!" she exclaimed, when I had got to the end of my story, "you are a big stupid, in spite of all your cleverness! You are not a bit sharper than the rest of your sex: a woman has twice the insight of any of you lords of creation! Did I not tell you, not to believe that absurd story about Mr Mawley long ago that it was only a silly tale of Shuffler's, and not worth a moment's credence?
"I believe," said I, "that both Mr Horner and Mr Mawley were only introduced to Miss Clyde a short time previously to myself." Bless you, I was a child in her practised hands! Fancy my making such a blunder as to show her where the shoe pinched me! "I think, Mr Lorton," she replied, "that I am the best judge as to whom I consider my daughter's friends.
"What!" exclaimed Mr Mawley, who had come up close behind us before we perceived him, and at once pushed into the conversation. "`One half our soil has walked the rest, Lorton? That's a palpable absurdity!
There were the usual number of young ladies, all of whose faces I knew so well, engaged in the pious work; with Horner, Mr Mawley the curate, and one or two other attendant male aides, to minister to their needs such as stripping off leaves for wreath making and help them to flirt the dull hours away.
I remember he had a favourite song about it I don't know if I quite recollect it now, but, I'll try." "Do, Lady Dasher, do," said Mr Mawley, who, having been paying great attention to Bessie the while, wished, I suppose, to ingratiate himself with her mother.
Word Of The Day