The Two Guardians: or, Home in This WorldYonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
General
The Two Guardians: or, Home in This World
Yonge, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Mary)
Fiction
Marian enjoyed her drive to Salisbury, though it added to her contempt
for Wiltshire scenery, by showing her more and more of desolate down.
She watched the tall Cathedral spire from far in the distance, peering
up among the hills like a picture more than a reality, and she admired
the green meadows and quiet vale where the town stands. Poor Caroline
was taken up with dreadful anticipations of Mr. Pokingtooth, as Lionel
called him, and when arrived at his clamber of torture, hung back, so as
to allow Marian to be the first victim. The result of the examination
was, that it would be better; though not absolutely necessary, that a
certain double tooth should be extracted, and Mr. Polkinghorn, left the
room in search of an instrument.
"So you think it ought to go?" sighed Marian.
"I should say so," said Mrs. Lyddell, "but you may decide for yourself."
Marian covered her face with her hands, and considered. The dentist
returned; she laid back her head and opened her mouth, and the tooth
was drawn. Caroline and Lionel escaped more easily, and they left the
dentist's. Mrs. Lyddell said something in commendation of Marian's
courage, and asked if she would like to see the Cathedral, an offer
which she gladly accepted, expecting to go to the service, as the bells
now began to ring; but she was disappointed, for Mrs. Lyddell said, "Ah!
I had forgotten the hour. We must do our commissions first, and be at
the Cathedral before the doors are shut." Marian did not venture to
express her wishes, but she thought of the days when attending the
Cathedral service had been the crowning pleasure of a drive to Exeter,
and in dwelling on the recollection, she spent the attention which Mrs.
Lyddell expected her to bestow on her new bonnet.
Their business did not occupy them very long, and they entered the
Cathedral before the anthem was over; but Marian felt that it was not
fitting to loiter about the nave while worship was going on within the
choir; and the uncomfortable feeling occupied her so much, that she
could hardly look at the fair clustered columns and graceful arches, and
seemed scarcely to know or care for the gallant William Longsword, when
led to the side of his mail-clad, cross-legged effigy. The deep notes of
the organ, which delighted Caroline, gave her a sense of shame; and even
when the service was over, and they entered the choir, these thoughts
had not so passed away as to enable her to give full admiration to the
exquisite leafy capitals and taper arcades of the Lady Chapel. Perhaps,
too, there was a little perverseness in her inability to think that this
Cathedral surpassed that of Exeter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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