Clergy -- Fiction; Great Britain -- Fiction; Religious fiction
On the present occasion they seemed to promise more amusement than usual
to the party, who had most of them been frequently there before,--for
they were nearly all new. Poor little Fanny, though she knew that not
one of those with her were capable of enjoying the intellectual and
edifying feast that almost the first glance of her eye showed her was
set before them, could not restrain an exclamation of--"Oh! How
heavenly-minded!"
The whole collection indeed, which though recently and hastily formed,
had evidently been brought together by the hand of a master of such
matters, was not only most strictly evangelical, but most evangelically
ingenious.
Helen, however, appeared to find food neither for pleasantry nor
edification there; for having opened one or two slender volumes, and as
many heavy pamphlets, she abandoned the occupation with a sigh, that
spoke sadness and vexation. Miss Cartwright, who had seated herself on
the same sofa, finished her examination still more quickly, saying in a
low voice as she settled herself in a well-pillowed corner--
"Surfeit is the father of much fast."
Miss Torrington and young Mowbray got hold of by far the finest volume
of all, whose gilt leaves and silken linings showed that it was intended
as the repository of the most precious gifts, that, according to the
frontispiece, Genius could offer to Friendship. Having given a glance at
its contents, Charles drew out his pencil, and on the blank side of a
letter wrote the following catalogue of them, which, though imperfect as
not naming them all, was most scrupulously correct as far as it went:
"Saint Paul's head, sketched in pen and ink;
'Here's the bower,' to words of grace;
The death-bed talk of Master Blink;
Lines on a fallen maiden's case.
Sonnet upon heavenly love;
A pencil drawing of Saint Peter.
Emblems--the pigeon and the dove.
Gray's Odes, turned to psalm-tune metre.
A Christian ode in praise of tea,
Freely translated from Redi."
He had just presented the scrap to Rosalind when Mrs. Simpson entered,
leading her little girl in her hand; but the young lady had leisure to
convey it unnoticed to her pocket, as the mistress of the house had for
the first few minutes eyes only for Fanny. In fact, she literally ran to
her the instant she perceived her little bonnet, and, folding her arms
round her, exclaimed--
"My dear, dear child! My dear, dear sister! This is providential! It is
a blessing I shall remember alway! Our minister told me that I should
read at a glance the blessed change wrought upon you: I do read it, and
I will rejoice therefore! I beg your pardon, ladies. Mr. Mowbray, pray
sit down--I beg your pardon: I rejoice to see you, though as yet----"
Her eyes fixed themselves on the bonnet of Rosalind, which, besides
being large, had the abomination of sundry bows, not to mention a bunch
of laburnum blossoms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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