England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
This evening, as he was rather feeling his way as to what might please
her most, Mrs. Thornberry embracing him, and hiding her face on his
breast, murmured, “Do not give me any jewel, dear Job. What I should
like would be that you should restore the chapel here.”
“Restore the chapel here! oh, oh!” said Job Thornberry.
CHAPTER XC
The archbishop called at Hurstley House the next day. It was a visit
to Mr. Thornberry, but all the family were soon present, and clustered
round the visitor. Then they walked together in the gardens, which
had become radiant under the taste and unlimited expenditure of Mrs.
Thornberry; beds glowing with colour or rivalling mosaics, choice
conifers with their green or purple fruit, and rare roses with their
fanciful and beauteous names; one, by the by, named “Mrs. Penruddock,”
and a very gorgeous one, “The Archbishop.”
As they swept along the terraces, restored to their pristine comeliness,
and down the green avenues bounded by copper beeches and ancient yews,
where men were sweeping away every leaf and twig that had fallen in the
night and marred the consummate order, it must have been difficult
for the Archbishop of Tyre not to recall the days gone by, when this
brilliant and finished scene, then desolate and neglected, the abode of
beauty and genius, yet almost of penury, had been to him a world of deep
and familiar interest. Yes, he was walking in the same glade where he
had once pleaded his own cause with an eloquence which none of his most
celebrated sermons had excelled. Did he think of this? If he did, it
was only to wrench the thought from his memory. Archbishops who are
yet young, who are resolved to be cardinals, and who may be popes, are
superior to all human weakness.
“I should like to look at your chapel,” said his Grace to Mr.
Thornberry; “I remember it a lumber room, and used to mourn over its
desecration.”
“I never was in it,” said Job, “and cannot understand why my wife is so
anxious about it as she seems to be. When we first went to London, she
always sate under the Reverend Socinus Frost, and seemed very satisfied.
I have heard him; a sensible man--but sermons are not much in my way,
and I do not belong to his sect, or indeed any other.”
However, they went to the chapel all the same, for Mrs. Thornberry
was resolved on the visit. It was a small chamber but beautifully
proportioned, like the mansion itself--of a blended Italian and Gothic
style. The roof was flat, but had been richly gilt and painted, and was
sustained by corbels of angels, divinely carved. There had been some
pews in the building; some had fallen to pieces, and some remained, but
these were not in the original design. The sacred table had disappeared,
but two saintly statues, sculptured in black oak, seemed still to guard
the spot which it had consecrated.
“I wonder what became of the communion table?” said Job.
“Oh! my dear father, do not call it a communion table,” exclaimed John
Hampden pettishly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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