New England -- Fiction; New England -- Politics and government -- Fiction
There are weeks and months, perhaps, when we do not think of people,
when our lives are full and vigorous, and then perchance a memory will
bring them vividly before us--so vividly that we yearn for them. There
rose before Cynthia now the vision of a boy as he stood on the Gothic
porch of the house, and how he had come down to the wondering country
people with his smile and his merry greeting, and how he had cajoled her
into lingering in front of the meeting-house. Had he forgotten her? With
just a suspicion of a twinge, Cynthia remembered that Janet Duncan she
had seen at the capital, whom she had been told was the heiress of the
state. When he had graduated from Harvard, Bob would, of course, marry
her. That was in the nature of things.
To some the great event of that day in Brampton was to be the speech of
the Honorable Heth Sutton in the meeting-house at eleven; others (and
this party was quite as numerous) had looked forward to the base-ball
game between Brampton and Harwich in the afternoon. The painter would
have preferred to walk up meeting-house hill with Cynthia, and from
the cool heights look down upon the amphitheatre in which the town
was built. But Cynthia was interested in history, and they went to the
meeting-house accordingly, where she listened for an hour and a half to
the patriotic eloquence of the representative. The painter was glad to
see and hear so great a man in the hour of his glory, though so much as
a fragment of the oration does not now remain in his memory. In size,
in figure, in expression, in the sonorous tones of his voice, Mr. Sutton
was everything that a congressman should be. “The people,” said Isaac D.
Worthington in presenting him, “should indeed be proud of such an able
and high-minded representative.” We shall have cause to recall that word
high-minded.
Many persons greeted Cynthia outside the meetinghouse, for the girl
seemed genuinely loved by all who knew her--too much loved, her
companion thought, by certain spick-and-span young men of Brampton. But
they ate the lunch Cynthia had brought, far from the crowd, under the
trees by Coniston Water. It was she who proposed going to the base-ball
game, and the painter stifled a sigh and acquiesced. Their way brought
them down Brampton Street, past a house with great iron dogs on the
lawn, so imposing and cityfied that he hung back and asked who lived
there.
“Mr. Worthington,” answered Cynthia, making to move on impatiently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account