WaynfleteColeridge, Christabel R. (Christabel Rose)
General
Waynflete
Coleridge, Christabel R. (Christabel Rose)
England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
"But, after all, you know, whatever is true, the world has got along
somehow hitherto, and I suppose it will continue to do so; so why
worry."
"Look here," said Florella, "if we quarrel over the young men, we shall
be more like the Miss Bennets than ever. We belong, you know, a little
to the Waynfletes through Aunt Connie, and we knew them long ago. I am
going back to my harebells. Violet, will you come?"
A great many young women aspired to the friendship of Constancy Vyner,
and courted her, as girls do court each other. Florella's friends did
not make her of so much importance; but they told her all their
troubles.
PART ONE, CHAPTER TEN.
"THE ONE MAID FOR ME."
When old Margaret Waynflete drove up to the door of Waynflete Hall in
the Rilston fly--for the old stables were not calculated for the
accommodation of valuable horses--she never thought of herself in a
picturesque light, nor felt, as Godfrey and even Jeanie in a measure
did, for her, that this was the moment for which she had lived.
But she looked round her with the most lively curiosity. When she sat
down in the low, crowded, old-fashioned drawing-room, she did not admire
it, nor feel comfortable as she drank her cup of tea and looked about
her. She scolded Godfrey and Jeanie for expressing anxiety as to the
effect upon her of the unwonted journey; for she felt quite strong and
vigorous, even while she repeated to herself that it was right for her
to see Waynflete before she died. And see it she did, for she inspected
the old house from attic to cellar. She went over the gardens and
outbuildings, she had herself driven up and down the steep sides of the
Flete Valley and through the shabby village, she attended service in the
picturesque old church, where a newly arrived young vicar, himself
aghast at the condition of his church and parish, only struck her as an
unpleasing contrast to the old rector of Ingleby. She liked none of it
very much. She _was_ an old woman, and she could not take to new
surroundings. Ingleby was home. Waynflete was for the next generation.
All the neighbourhood called upon her, and paid attention to her and
her nephew.
Godfrey was well aware that his position, as apparent master of the
house, was an awkward one. He would also have preferred Jeanie's
absence; the new neighbourhood would draw conclusions, which his
downright old aunt would never have anticipated. He meant, when the
visit of the Moorhead party was safely over, to write to Guy and to
offer to change places with him; but, when he found him at Moorhead
before him, inviting Constancy to Ingleby, and proposing to come to
Waynflete to meet her, all other thoughts were swallowed up in angry
jealousy. All places were the same to him where she was not, and he
could only think of keeping his chance of seeing her some time without
Guy's interference. Guy appeared early on the appointed Tuesday. He
could only, he said, stay one night, as Staunton was coming to him on
the next day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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