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There was no handsome church at Riflebury; the one the Bullers "attended" when we were at the seaside was new, and not beautiful. The one Miss Mulberry took us to was older, but uglier. I had never seen one of these old parish churches.
She was a great novel-reader, and I think a good many of the things she told us of, as having happened to herself, had their real origin in the Riflebury circulating library. For she was one of those strange characters who indulge in egotism and exaggeration, till they seem positively to lose the sense of what is fact and what is fiction.
This habit certainly affected my health, and I had become a very thin, weak child when the home voyage came to restore my strength. By the time we reached Riflebury, my fashionable new dress was neither new nor fashionable. It was then that Mrs. Minchin ferreted out a dressmaker whom Mrs. St. Quentin employed, and I was put under her hands.
She gave Adolphe a sharp lecture one day for some lack of respect in his manner to "Miss Margery"; and, on the other hand, she taught me to curtsy at the door where I breakfasted with Mr. and Mrs. Vandaleur. Some dancing lessons that I had had in Riflebury helped me here, and Elspeth was well satisfied with my performance.
It is a north-country habit, I think. I have seen middle-aged Scotch and Yorkshire ladies run as lightly as children. It was not the fashionable time of day, so that we could not, during that walk, show Eleanor the chief characters of Riflebury. But just as we were leaving High Street she stopped and asked, "Who is that lady?" "The one in the mauve silk?" said Matilda.
The little Bullers and I had the measles; and when we were all convalescent, Major Buller got two months' leave, and we went away for change of air. Then small-pox prevailed in Riflebury, and we were kept away, even after Major Buller returned to his duties.
The grief I felt at leaving The Vine was greatly forgotten in the warm welcome which awaited me on my return to Riflebury. In a household where gossip is a principal amusement, the return of any member from a visit is a matter for general congratulation till the new budget is exhausted.
Then, if Miss Perry happened to be in good humour, she would excuse Matilda from further lessons, invariably adding, in her "mystery" voice "But not a word to your mamma!" For some time they had no doubts as to the wisdom of Mrs. Minchin's choice. Miss Perry was clever enough not to display her romantic side to Mrs. Buller. She amused her, too, with Riflebury gossip, in which she was an adept.
I think a panic seized upon the members of the household, that they were too old to make a child happy. I was constantly assured that "it was very natural," and I "had been very good." But I was sent back to Riflebury.
But we abolished this uncivilized custom in conclave, and thenceforth sat our meals out to the end. Arkwright, and for going out visiting from time to time. It was not merely that a life of running in and out of other people's houses, and chatting the same bits of news threadbare with one acquaintance after another, as at Riflebury, would have been unendurable by us.
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