Henderson. His lady, in a
blonde cap, exactly like the last equipment my mother had provided
herself with in London, and a black satin dress, had much more style
than the more gaily-dressed country dames, and far more
conversation. Mr. Stafford, who had dreaded the party, pronounced
her a sensible, agreeable woman, and she was particularly kind and
pleasant to me, coming and talking over the botany of the country,
and then speaking of my brother's kindness to poor Amos Bell, who
was nearly recovered, but was a weakly child, for whom she dreaded
the toil of a ploughboy in thick clay with heavy shoes.
I was sorry when, after Emily's well-studied performance on the
piano, Mrs. Fordyce was summoned away from me to sing, but her music
and her voice were both of a very different order from ordinary
drawing-room music; and when our evening was over, we congratulated
ourselves upon our neighbours, and agreed that the Fordyces were the
gems of the party.
Only Mrs. Sophia sighed at us as degenerate Winslows, and Emily
reserved to herself the right of believing that the daughter was 'a
horrid girl.'
CHAPTER XIII--A SCRAPE
'Though bound with weakness' heavy chain
We in the dust of earth remain;
Not all remorseful be our tears,
No agony of shame or fears,
Need pierce its passion's bitter tide.'
Verses and Sonnets.
Perhaps it was of set purpose that our dinner.
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