And down he sat to a sheet of paper, with his left hand clenched on the
table, and his teeth grinding together, as he ransacked his vocabulary
for befitting terms; but alas, his right hand shook so that his
penmanship would not do, in fact, it half frightened him. 'By my soul! I
believe something bad has happened me,' he muttered, and popped up his
window, and looked out, half dreaming over the church-yard on the park
beyond, and the dewy overhanging hill, all pleasantly lighted up in the
morning sun.
While this was going on, little Mrs. Sturk, who on critical occasions
took strong resolutions promptly, made a wonderfully rapid toilet, and
let herself quietly out of the street door. She had thought of Dr.
Walsingham; but Sturk had lately, in one of his imperious freaks of
temper, withdrawn his children from the good doctor's catechetical
class, and sent him besides, one of his sturdy, impertinent notes--and
the poor little woman concluded there was no chance there. She knew
little of the rector--of the profound humility and entire placability of
that noble soul.
Well, she took the opposite direction, and turning her back on the town,
walked at her quickest pace toward the Brass Castle.
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