No
doubt there were the usual amount of trivial disappointments and
annoyances, but the whole season seems to me to have been bathed in
sunlight. The Reform Bill agitations and the London mobs of which
Clarence wrote to us were like waves surging beyond an isle of
peace. Clarence had some unpleasant walks from the office. Once or
twice the shutters had to be put up at Frith and Castleford's to
prevent the windows from being broken; and once Clarence actually
saw our nation's hero, 'the Duke,' riding quietly and slowly through
a yelling, furious mob, who seemed withheld from falling on him by
the perfect impassiveness of the eagle face and spare figure.
Moreover a pretty little boy, on his pony, suddenly pushed forward
and rode by the Duke's side, as if proud and resolute to share his
peril.
'If Griffith had been there!' said Ellen and Emily, though they did
not exactly know what they expected him to have done.
The chief storms that drifted across our sky were caused by Mrs.
Fordyce's resolution that Griffith should enjoy none of the
privileges of an accepted suitor before the engagement was an actual
fact. Ellen was obedient and conscientious; and would neither
transgress nor endure to have her mother railed at by Griff's hasty
tongue, and this affronted him, and led to little breezes.
When people overstay their usual time, tempers are apt to get rather
difficult.
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