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diff --git a/old/cthrc10.txt b/old/cthrc10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c42082 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cthrc10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1349 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Cathedral Courtship, Kate Douglas Wiggin +#9 in our series by Kate Douglas Wiggin + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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Aunt +Celia has an intense desire to improve my mind. Papa told her, when +we were leaving Cedarhurst, that he wouldn't for the world have it +too much improved, and aunt Celia remarked that, so far as she could +judge, there was no immediate danger; with which exchange of +hostilities they parted. + +We are traveling under the yoke of an iron itinerary, warranted +neither to bend nor break. It was made out by a young High Church +curate in New York, and if it had been blessed by all the bishops +and popes it could not be more sacred to aunt Celia. She is awfully +High Church, and I believe she thinks this tour of the cathedrals +will give me a taste for ritual and bring me into the true fold. I +have been hearing dear old Dr. Kyle a great deal lately, and aunt +Celia says that he is the most dangerous Unitarian she knows, +because he has leanings towards Christianity. + +Long ago, in her youth, she was engaged to a young architect. He, +with his triangles and T-squares and things, succeeded in making an +imaginary scale-drawing of her heart (up to that time a virgin +forest, an unmapped territory), which enabled him to enter in and +set up a pedestal there, on which he has remained ever since. He +has been only a memory for many years, to be sure, for he died at +the age of twenty-six, before he had had time to build anything but +a livery stable and a country hotel. This is fortunate, on the +whole, because aunt Celia thinks he was destined to establish +American architecture on a higher plane,--rid it of its base, time- +serving, imitative instincts, and waft it to a height where, in the +course of centuries, we should have been revered and followed by all +the nations of the earth. I went to see the livery stable, after +one of these Miriam-like flights of prophecy on the might-have-been. +It isn't fair to judge a man's promise by one performance, and that +one a livery stable, so I shall say nothing. + +This sentiment about architecture and this fondness for the very +toppingest High Church ritual cause aunt Celia to look on the +English cathedrals with solemnity and reverential awe. She has +given me a fat notebook, with "Katharine Schuyler" stamped in gold +letters on the Russia leather cover, and a lock and key to protect +its feminine confidences. I am not at all the sort of girl who +makes notes, and I have told her so; but she says that I must at +least record my passing impressions, if they are ever so trivial and +commonplace. + +I wanted to go directly from Southampton to London with the Abbotts, +our ship friends, who left us yesterday. Roderick Abbott and I had +had a charming time on board ship (more charming than aunt Celia +knows, because she was very ill, and her natural powers of +chaperoning were severely impaired), and the prospect of seeing +London sights together was not unpleasing; but Roderick Abbott is +not in aunt Celia's itinerary, which reads: "Winchester, Salisbury, +Wells, Bath, Bristol, Gloucester, Oxford, London, Ely, Lincoln, +York, Durham." + +Aunt Celia is one of those persons who are born to command, and when +they are thrown in contact with those who are born to be commanded +all goes as merry as a marriage bell; otherwise not. + +So here we are at Winchester; and I don't mind all the Roderick +Abbotts in the universe, now that I have seen the Royal Garden Inn, +its pretty coffee-room opening into the old-fashioned garden, with +its borders of clove pinks, its aviaries, and its blossoming horse- +chestnuts, great towering masses of pink bloom! + +Aunt Celia has driven to St. Cross Hospital with Mrs. Benedict, an +estimable lady tourist whom she "picked up" en route from +Southampton. I am tired, and stayed at home. I cannot write +letters, because aunt Celia has the guide-books, so I sit by the +window in indolent content, watching the dear little school laddies, +with their short jackets and wide white collars; they all look so +jolly, and rosy, and clean, and kissable! I should like to kiss the +chambermaid, too! She has a pink print dress; no bangs, thank +goodness (it's curious our servants can't leave that deformity to +the upper classes), but shining brown hair, plump figure, soft +voice, and a most engaging way of saying, "Yes, miss? Anythink +more, miss?" I long to ask her to sit down comfortably and be +English, while I study her as a type, but of course I mustn't. +Sometimes I wish I could retire from the world for a season and do +what I like, "surrounded by the general comfort of being thought +mad." + +An elegant, irreproachable, high-minded model of dignity and reserve +has just knocked and inquired what we will have for dinner. It is +very embarrassing to give orders to a person who looks like a judge +of the Supreme Court, but I said languidly, "What would you +suggest?" + +"How would you like a clear soup, a good spring soup, to begin with, +miss?" + +"Very much." + +"And a bit of turbot next, miss?" + +"Yes, turbot, by all means," I said, my mouth watering at the word. + +"And what for a roast, miss? Would you enjoy a young duckling, +miss?" + +"Just the thing; and for dessert"--I couldn't think what we ought to +have for dessert in England, but the high-minded model coughed +apologetically and said, "I was thinking you might like gooseberry +tart and cream for a sweet, miss." + +Oh that I could have vented my New World enthusiasm in a shriek of +delight as I heard those intoxicating words, heretofore met only in +English novels! + +"Ye-es," I said hesitatingly, though I was palpitating with joy, "I +fancy we should like gooseberry tart (here a bright idea entered my +mind) and perhaps in case my aunt doesn't care for the gooseberry +tart, you might bring a lemon squash, please." + +Now I had never met a lemon squash personally, but I had often heard +of it, and wished to show my familiarity with British culinary art. + +"One lemon squash, miss?" + +"Oh, as to that, it doesn't matter," I said haughtily; "bring a +sufficient number for two persons." + +* * * + +Aunt Celia came home in the highest feather. She had twice been +taken for an Englishwoman. She said she thought that lemon squash +was a drink; I thought it was a pie; but we shall find out at +dinner, for, as I said, I ordered a sufficient number for two +persons. + +At four o'clock we attended even-song at the cathedral. I shall not +say what I felt when the white-surpliced boy choir entered, winding +down those vaulted aisles, or when I heard for the first time that +intoned service, with all its "witchcraft of harmonic sound." I sat +quite by myself in a high carved-oak seat, and the hour was passed +in a trance of serene delight. I do not have many opinions, it is +true, but papa says I am always strong on sentiments; nevertheless, +I shall not attempt to tell even what I feel in these new and +beautiful experiences, for it has been better told a thousand times. + +There were a great many people at service, and a large number of +Americans among them, I should think, though we saw no familiar +faces. There was one particularly nice young man, who looked like a +Bostonian. He sat opposite me. He didn't stare,--he was too well +bred; but when I looked the other way, he looked at me. Of course I +could feel his eyes,--anybody can, at least any girl can; but I +attended to every word of the service, and was as good as an angel. +When the procession had filed out and the last strain of the great +organ had rumbled into silence, we went on a tour through the +cathedral, a heterogeneous band, headed by a conscientious old +verger who did his best to enlighten us, and succeeded in virtually +spoiling my pleasure. + +After we had finished (think of "finishing" a cathedral in an hour +or two!), aunt Celia and I, with one or two others, wandered through +the beautiful close, looking at the exterior from every possible +point, and coming at last to a certain ruined arch which is very +famous. It did not strike me as being remarkable. I could make any +number of them with a pattern, without the least effort. But at any +rate, when told by the verger to gaze upon the beauties of this +wonderful relic and tremble, we were obliged to gaze also upon the +beauties of the aforesaid nice young man, who was sketching it. As +we turned to go away, aunt Celia dropped her bag. It is one of +those detestable, all-absorbing, all-devouring, thoroughly +respectable, but never proud Boston bags, made of black cloth with +leather trimmings, "C. Van T." embroidered on the side, and the top +drawn up with stout cords which pass over the Boston wrist or arm. +As for me, I loathe them, and would not for worlds be seen carrying +one, though I do slip a great many necessaries into aunt Celia's. + +I hastened to pick up the horrid thing, for fear the nice young man +would feel obliged to do it for me; but, in my indecorous haste, I +caught hold of the wrong end and emptied the entire contents on the +stone flagging. Aunt Celia didn't notice; she had turned with the +verger, lest she should miss a single word of his inspired +testimony. So we scrambled up the articles together, the nice young +man and I; and oh, I hope I may never look upon his face again + +There were prayer-books and guide-books, a bottle of soda mint +tablets, a spool of dental floss, a Bath bun, a bit of gray frizz +that aunt Celia pins into her steamer cap, a spectacle case, a +brandy flask, and a bonbon box, which broke and scattered cloves and +cardamom seeds. (I hope he guessed aunt Celia is a dyspeptic, and +not intemperate!) All this was hopelessly vulgar, but I wouldn't +have minded anything if there had not been a Duchess novel. Of +course he thought that it belonged to me. He couldn't have known +aunt Celia was carrying it for that accidental Mrs. Benedict, with +whom she went to St. Cross Hospital. + +After scooping the cardamom seeds out of the cracks in the stone +flagging, he handed me the tattered, disreputable-looking copy of "A +Modern Circe" with a bow that wouldn't have disgraced a +Chesterfield, and then went back to his easel, while I fled after +aunt Celia and her verger. + +Memoranda: The Winchester Cathedral has the longest nave. The +inside is more superb than the outside. Izaak Walton and Jane +Austen are buried there. + + + +HE + + + +WINCHESTER, May 28, 1891 +The White Swan. + +As sure as my name is Jack Copley, I saw the prettiest girl in the +world to-day,--an American, too, or I'm greatly mistaken. It was in +the cathedral, where I have been sketching for several days. I was +sitting in the end of a seat, at afternoon service, when two ladies +entered by the side door. The ancient maiden, evidently the head of +the family, settled herself devoutly, and the young one stole off by +herself to one of the old carved seats back of the choir. She was +worse than pretty! I took a sketch of her during service, as she +sat under the dark carved-oak canopy, with this Latin inscription +over her head:- + + +CARLTON CUM +DOLBY +LETANIA +IX SOLIDORUM +SUPER FLUMINA +CONFITEBOR TIBI +DUC PROBATI + + +There ought to be a law against a woman's making a picture of +herself, unless she is willing to sit and be sketched. + +A black and white sketch doesn't give any definite idea of this +charmer's charms, but some time I'll fill it in,--hair, sweet little +hat, gown, and eyes, all in golden brown, a cape of tawny sable +slipping off her arm, a knot of yellow primroses in her girdle, +carved-oak background, and the afternoon sun coming through a +stained-glass window. Great Jove! She had a most curious effect on +me, that girl! I can't explain it,--very curious, altogether new, +and rather pleasant! When one of the choir boys sang, "Oh for the +wings of a dove!" a tear rolled out of one of her lovely eyes and +down her smooth brown cheek. I would have given a large portion of +my modest monthly income for the felicity of wiping away that +teardrop with one of my new handkerchiefs, marked with a tremendous +"C" by my pretty sister. + +An hour or two later they appeared again,--the dragon, who answers +to the name of "aunt Celia," and the "nut-brown mayde," who comes +when you call her "Katharine." I was sketching a ruined arch. The +dragon dropped her unmistakably Boston bag. I expected to see +encyclopaedias and Russian tracts fall from it, but was +disappointed. The nut-brown mayde (who has been brought up rigidly) +hastened to pick up the bag, for fear that I should serve her by +doing it. She was punished by turning it inside out, and I was +rewarded by helping her pick up the articles, which were many and +ill assorted. My little romance received the first blow when I +found that she reads the Duchess novels. I think, however, she has +the grace to be ashamed of it, for she blushed scarlet when I handed +her "A Modern Circe." I could have told her that such a blush on +such a cheek would atone for reading Mrs. Southworth, but I +refrained. After she had gone I discovered a slip of paper which +had blown under some stones. It proved to be an itinerary. I +didn't return it. I thought they must know which way they were +going; and as this was precisely what I wanted to know, I kept it +for my own use. She is doing the cathedral towns. I am doing the +cathedral towns. Happy thought! Why shouldn't we do them +together,--we and aunt Celia? + +I had only ten minutes--to catch my train for Salisbury, but I +concluded to run in and glance at the registers of the principal +hotels. Found my nut-brown mayde at once on the pages of the Royal +Garden Inn register: "Miss Celia Van Tyck, Beverly, Mass.; Miss +Katharine Schuyler, New York." I concluded to stay over another +train, ordered dinner, and took an altogether indefensible and +inconsistent pleasure in writing "John Quincy Copley, Cambridge, +Mass.," directly beneath the charmer's autograph. + + + +SHE + + + +SALISBURY, June 1 +The White Hart Inn. + +We left Winchester on the 1.06 train yesterday, and here we are +within sight of another superb and ancient pile of stone. I wanted +so much to stop at the Highflyer Inn in Lark Lane, but aunt Celia +said that if we were destitute of personal dignity, we at least owed +something to our ancestors. Aunt Celia has a temperamental distrust +of joy as something dangerous and ensnaring. She doesn't realize +what fun it would be to date one's letters from the Highflyer Inn, +Lark Lane, even if one were obliged to consort with poachers and +cockneys in order to do it. + +We attended service at three. The music was lovely, and there were +beautiful stained-glass windows by Burne-Jones and Morris. The +verger (when wound up with a shilling) talked like an electric doll. +If that nice young man is making a cathedral tour, like ourselves, +he isn't taking our route, for he isn't here. If he has come over +for the purpose of sketching, he wouldn't stop at sketching one +cathedral. Perhaps he began at the other end and worked down to +Winchester. Yes, that must be it, for the Ems sailed yesterday from +Southampton. + +* * * + +June 2. + +We intended to go to Stonehenge this morning, but it rained, so we +took a "growler" and went to the Earl of Pembroke's country place to +see the pictures. Had a delightful morning with the magnificent +antiques, curios, and portraits. The Van Dyck room is a joy +forever. There were other visitors; nobody who looked especially +interesting. Don't like Salisbury so well as Winchester. Don't +know why. We shall drive this afternoon, if it is fair, and go to +Wells to-morrow. Must read Baedeker on the bishop's palace. Oh +dear! if one could only have a good time and not try to know +anything! + +Memoranda: This cathedral has the highest spire. Remember: +Winchester, longest nave; Salisbury, highest spire. + +The Lancet style is those curved lines meeting in a rounding or a +sharp point like this + + +[drawing like two very circular n's next to each other] + + +and then joined together like this: + + + \/\/\/ + + +the way they used to scallop flannel petticoats. Gothic looks like +triangles meeting together in various spots and joined with +beautiful sort of ornamented knobs. I think I know Gothic when I +see it. Then there is Norman, Early English, fully developed Early +English, Early and Late Perpendicular, and Transition. Aunt Celia +knows them all apart. + + + +HE + + + +SALISBURY, June 3 +The Red Lion. + +I went off on a long tramp this afternoon, and coming on a pretty +river flowing through green meadows, with a fringe of trees on +either side, I sat down to make a sketch. I heard feminine voices +in the vicinity, but, as these are generally a part of the landscape +in the tourist season, I paid no special notice. Suddenly a dainty +patent-leather shoe floated towards me on the surface of the stream. +It evidently had just dropped in, for it was right side up with +care, and was disporting itself right merrily. "Did ever Jove's +tree drop such fruit?" I quoted, as I fished it out on my stick; and +just then I heard a distressed voice saying, "Oh, aunt Celia, I've +lost my smart little London shoe. I was sitting in a tree, taking a +pebble out of the heel, when I saw a caterpillar, and I dropped it +into the river, the shoe, you know, not the caterpillar." Hereupon +she came in sight, and I witnessed the somewhat unusual spectacle of +my nut-brown mayde hopping on one foot, like a divine stork, and +ever and anon emitting a feminine shriek as her off foot, clad in a +delicate silk stocking, came in contact with the ground. I rose +quickly, and, polishing the patent leather ostentatiously, inside +and out, with my handkerchief, I offered it to her with +distinguished grace. She swayed on her one foot with as much +dignity as possible, and then recognizing me as the person who +picked up the contents of aunt Celia's bag, she said, dimpling in +the most distracting manner (that's another thing there ought to be +a law against), "Thank you again; you seem to be a sort of knight- +errant!" + +"Shall I--assist you?" I asked. (I might have known that this was +going too far.) + +"No, thank you," she said, with polar frigidity. "Good-afternoon." +And she hopped back to her aunt Celia without another word. + +I don't know how to approach aunt Celia. She is formidable. By a +curious accident of feature, for which she is not in the least +responsible, she always wears an unfortunate expression as of one +perceiving some offensive odor in the immediate vicinity. This may +be a mere accident of high birth. It is the kind of nose often seen +in the "first families," and her name betrays the fact that she is +of good old Knickerbocker origin. We go to Wells to-morrow. At +least I think we do. + + + +SHE + + + +GLOUCESTER, June 9 +The Spread Eagle. + +I met him at Wells, and again at Bath. We are always being +ridiculous, and he is always rescuing us. Aunt Celia never really +sees him, and thus never recognizes him when he appears again, +always as the flower of chivalry and guardian of ladies in distress. +I will never again travel abroad without a man, even if I have to +hire one from a Feeble-Minded Asylum. We work like galley slaves, +aunt Celia and I, finding out about trains and things. Neither of +us can understand Bradshaw, and I can't even grapple with the lesser +intricacies of the A B C railway guide. The trains, so far as I can +see, always arrive before they go out, and I can never tell whether +to read up the page or down. It is certainly very queer that the +stupidest man that breathes, one that barely escapes idiocy, can +disentangle a railway guide, when the brightest woman fails. Even +the Boots at the inn in Wells took my book, and, rubbing his +frightfully dirty finger down the row of puzzling figures, found the +place in a minute, and said, "There ye are, miss." It is very +humiliating. All the time I have left from the study of routes and +hotels I spend on guide-books. Now I'm sure that if any one of the +men I know were here, he could tell me all that is necessary as we +walk along the streets. I don't say it in a frivolous or +sentimental spirit in the least, but I do affirm that there is +hardly any juncture in life where one isn't better off for having a +man about. I should never dare divulge this to aunt Celia, for she +doesn't think men very nice. She excludes them from conversation as +if they were indelicate subjects. + +But, to go on, we were standing at the door of Ye Olde Bell and +Horns, at Bath, waiting for the fly which we had ordered to take us +to the station, when who should drive up in a four-wheeler but the +flower of chivalry. Aunt Celia was saying very audibly, "We shall +certainly miss the train if the man doesn't come at once." + +"Pray take this fly," said the flower of chivalry. "I am not +leaving till the next train." + +Aunt Celia got in without a murmur; I sneaked in after her. I don't +think she looked at him, though she did vouchsafe the remark that he +seemed to be a civil sort of person. + +At Bristol, I was walking about by myself, and I espied a sign, +"Martha Huggins, Licensed Victualer." It was a nice, tidy little +shop, with a fire on the hearth and flowers in the window, and, as +it was raining smartly, I thought no one would catch me if I stepped +inside to chat with Martha. I fancied it would be so delightful and +Dickensy to talk quietly with a licensed victualer by the name of +Martha Huggins. + +Just after I had settled myself, the flower of chivalry came in and +ordered ale. I was disconcerted at being found in a dramshop alone, +for I thought, after the bag episode, he might fancy us a family of +inebriates. But he didn't evince the slightest astonishment; he +merely lifted his hat, and walked out after he had finished his ale. +He certainly has the loveliest manners! + +And so it goes on, and we never get any further. I like his +politeness and his evident feeling that I can't be flirted and +talked with like a forward boarding-school miss, but I must say I +don't think much of his ingenuity. Of course one can't have all the +virtues, but, if I were he, I would part with my distinguished air, +my charming ease, in fact almost anything, if I could have in +exchange a few grains of common sense, just enough to guide me in +the practical affairs of life. + +I wonder what he is? He might be an artist, but he doesn't seem +quite like an artist; or a dilettante, but he doesn't seem in the +least like a dilettante. Or he might be an architect; I think that +is the most probable guess of all. Perhaps he is only "going to be" +one of these things, for he can't be more than twenty-five or +twenty-six. Still he looks as if he were something already; that +is, he has a kind of self-reliance in his mien,--not self-assertion, +nor self-esteem, but belief in self, as if he were able, and knew +that he was able, to conquer circumstances. + + + +HE + + + +GLOUCESTER, June 10 +The Bell. + +Nothing accomplished yet. Her aunt is a Van Tyck, and a stiff one, +too. I am a Copley, and that delays matters. Much depends upon the +manner of approach. A false move would be fatal. We have six more +towns (as per itinerary), and if their thirst for cathedrals isn't +slaked when these are finished we have the entire continent to do. +If I could only succeed in making an impression on the retina of +aunt Celia's eye! Though I have been under her feet for ten days, +she never yet has observed me. This absent-mindedness of hers +serves me ill now, but it may prove a blessing later on. + + + +SHE + + + +OXFORD, June 12 +The Mitre. + +It was here in Oxford that a grain of common sense entered the brain +of the flower of chivalry. You might call it the dawn of reason. +We had spent part of the morning in High Street, "the noblest old +street in England," as our dear Hawthorne calls it. As Wordsworth +had written a sonnet about it, aunt Celia was armed for the fray,--a +volume of Wordsworth in one hand, and one of Hawthorne in the other. +(I wish Baedeker didn't give such full information about what one +ought to read before one can approach these places in a proper +spirit.) When we had done High Street, we went to Magdalen College, +and sat down on a bench in Addison's Walk, where aunt Celia +proceeded to store my mind with the principal facts of Addison's +career, and his influence on the literature of the something or +other century. The cramming process over, we wandered along, and +came upon "him" sketching a shady corner of the walk. + +Aunt Celia went up behind him, and, Van Tyck though she is, she +could not restrain her admiration of his work. I was surprised +myself: I didn't suppose so good looking a youth could do such good +work. I retired to a safe distance, and they chatted together. He +offered her the sketch; she refused to take advantage of his +kindness. He said he would "dash off" another that evening, and +bring it to our hotel,--"so glad to do anything for a fellow- +countryman," etc. I peeped from behind a tree and saw him give her +his card. It was an awful moment; I trembled, but she read it with +unmistakable approval, and gave him her own with an expression that +meant, "Yours is good, but beat that if you can!" + +She called to me, and I appeared. Mr. John Quincy Copley, +Cambridge, was presented to her niece, Miss Katharine Schuyler, New +York. It was over, and a very small thing to take so long about, +too. + +He is an architect, and of course has a smooth path into aunt +Celia's affections. Theological students, ministers, missionaries, +heroes, and martyrs she may distrust, but architects never! + +"He is an architect, my dear Katharine, and he is a Copley," she +told me afterwards. "I never knew a Copley who was not respectable, +and many of them have been more." + +After the introduction was over, aunt Celia asked him guilelessly if +he had visited any other of the English cathedrals. Any others, +indeed! This to a youth who had been all but in her lap for a +fortnight! It was a blow, but he rallied bravely, and, with an +amused look in my direction, replied discreetly that he had visited +most of them at one time or another. I refused to let him see that +I had ever noticed him before; that is, particularly. + +Memoranda: "The very stones and mortar of this historic town seem +impregnated with the spirit of restful antiquity." (Extract from +one of aunt Celia's letters.) Among the great men who have studied +here are the Prince of Wales, Duke of Wellington, Gladstone, Sir +Robert Peel, Sir Philip Sidney, William Penn, John Locke, the two +Wesleys, Ruskin, Ben Jonson, and Thomas Otway. (Look Otway up.) + + + +HE + + + +OXFORD, June 13 +The Angel. + +I have done it, and if I hadn't been a fool and a coward I might +have done it a week ago, and spared myself a good deal of delicious +torment. I have just given two hours to a sketch of Addison's Walk +and carried it to aunt Celia at the Mitre. Object, to find out +whether they make a long stay in London (our next point), and if so +where. It seems they go directly through. I said in the course of +conversation, "So Miss Schuyler is willing to forego a London +season? Marvelous self-denial!" + +"My niece did not come to Europe for a London season," replied Miss +Van Tyck. "We go through London this time merely as a cathedral +town, simply because it chances to be where it is geographically. +We shall visit St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, and then go +directly on, that our chain of impressions may have absolute +continuity and be free from any disturbing elements." + +Oh, but she is lovely, is aunt Celia! + + +LINCOLN, June 20 +The Black Boy Inn. + + +I am stopping at a beastly little hole, which has the one merit of +being opposite Miss Schuyler's lodgings. My sketch-book has +deteriorated in artistic value during the last two weeks. Many of +its pages, while interesting to me as reminiscences, will hardly do +for family or studio exhibition. If I should label them, the result +would be something like this:- + +1. Sketch of a footstool and desk where I first saw Miss Schuyler +kneeling. + +2. Sketch of a carved-oak chair, Miss Schuyler sitting in it. + +3. "Angel Choir." Heads of Miss Schuyler introduced into the +carving. + +4. Altar screen. Full length figure of Miss Schuyler holding +lilies. + +5. Tomb of a bishop, where I tied Miss Schuyler's shoe. + +6. Tomb of another bishop, where I had to tie it again because I +did it so badly the first time. + +7. Sketch of the shoe; the shoe-lace worn out with much tying. + +8. Sketch of the blessed verger who called her "madam," when we +were walking together. + +9. Sketch of her blush when he did it the prettiest thing in the +world. + +10. Sketch of J. Q. Copley contemplating the ruins of his heart. + +"How are the mighty fallen!" + + + +SHE + + + +LINCOLN, June 22 +At Miss Brown's, Castle Garden. + +Mr. Copley HAS done something in the world; I was sure that he had. +He has a little income of his own, but he is too proud and ambitious +to be an idler. He looked so manly when he talked about it, +standing up straight and strong in his knickerbockers. I like men +in knickerbockers. Aunt Celia doesn't. She says she doesn't see +how a well-brought-up Copley can go about with his legs in that +condition. I would give worlds to know how aunt Celia ever unbent +sufficiently to get engaged. But, as I was saying, Mr. Copley has +accomplished something, young as he is. He has built three +picturesque suburban churches suitable for weddings, and a state +lunatic asylum. + +Aunt Celia says we shall have no worthy architecture until every +building is made an exquisitely sincere representation of its +deepest purpose,--a symbol, as it were, of its indwelling meaning. +I should think it would be very difficult to design a lunatic asylum +on that basis, but I didn't dare say so, as Mr. Copley seemed to +think it all right. Their conversation is absolutely sublimated +when they get to talking of architecture. I have just copied two +quotations from Emerson, and am studying them every night for +fifteen minutes before I go to sleep. I'm going to quote them some +time offhand, just after morning service, when we are wandering +about the cathedral grounds. The first is this: "The Gothic +cathedral is a blossoming in stone, subdued by the insatiable demand +of harmony in man. The mountain of granite blooms into an eternal +flower, with the lightness and delicate finish as well as the aerial +proportion and perspective of vegetable beauty." Then when he has +recovered from the shock of this, here is my second: "Nor can any +lover of nature enter the old piles of Oxford and English cathedrals +without feeling that the forest overpowered the mind of the builder, +and that his chisel, his saw and plane, still reproduced its ferns, +its spikes of flowers, its locust, elm, pine, and spruce." + +Memoranda: Lincoln choir is an example of Early English or First +Pointed, which can generally be told from something else by bold +projecting buttresses and dog-tooth moulding round the abacusses. +(The plural is my own, and it does not look right.) Lincoln Castle +was the scene of many prolonged sieges, and was once taken by Oliver +Cromwell. + + + +HE + + + +YORK, June 24 +The Black Swan. + +Kitty Schuyler is the concentrated essence of feminine witchery. +Intuition strong, logic weak, and the two qualities so balanced as +to produce an indefinable charm; will-power large, but docility +equal, if a man is clever enough to know how to manage her; +knowledge of facts absolutely nil, but she is exquisitely +intelligent in spite of it. She has a way of evading, escaping, +eluding, and then gives you an intoxicating hint of sudden and +complete surrender. She is divinely innocent, but roguishness saves +her from insipidity. Her looks? She looks as you would imagine a +person might look who possessed these graces; and she is worth +looking at, though every time I do it I have a rush of love to the +head. When you find a girl who combines all the qualities you have +imagined in the ideal, and who has added a dozen or two on her own +account, merely to distract you past all hope, why stand up and try +to resist her charm? Down on your knees like a man, say I! + +* * * + +I'm getting to adore aunt Celia. I didn't care for her at first, +but she is so deliciously blind! Anything more exquisitely +unserviceable as a chaperon I can't imagine. Absorbed in antiquity, +she ignores the babble of contemporaneous lovers. That any man +could look at Kitty when he could look at a cathedral passes her +comprehension. I do not presume too greatly on her absent- +mindedness, however, lest she should turn unexpectedly and rend me. +I always remember that inscription on the backs of the little +mechanical French toys,--"Quoiqu'elle soit tres solidement montee, +il faut ne pas brutaliser la machine." + +And so my courtship progresses under aunt Celia's very nose. I say +"progresses," but it is impossible to speak with any certainty of +courting, for the essence of that gentle craft is hope, rooted in +labor and trained by love. + +I set out to propose to her during service this afternoon by writing +my feelings on the fly-leaf of the hymn-book, or something like +that; but I knew that aunt Celia would never forgive such blasphemy, +and I thought that Kitty herself might consider it wicked. Besides, +if she should chance to accept me, there was nothing I could do, in +a cathedral, to relieve my feelings. No; if she ever accepts me, I +wish it to be in a large, vacant spot of the universe, peopled by +two only, and those two so indistinguishably blended, as it were, +that they would appear as one to the casual observer. So I +practiced repression, though the wall of my reserve is worn to the +thinness of thread-paper, and I tried to keep my mind on the droning +minor canon, and not to look at her, "for that way madness lies." + + + +SHE + + + +YORK, June 26 +High Petersgate Street. + +My taste is so bad! I just begin to realize it, and I am feeling my +"growing pains," like Gwendolen in "Daniel Deronda." I admired the +stained glass in the Lincoln Cathedral, especially the Nuremberg +window. I thought Mr. Copley looked pained, but he said nothing. +When I went to my room, I looked in a book and found that all the +glass in that cathedral is very modern and very bad, and the +Nuremberg window is the worst of all. Aunt Celia says she hopes +that it will be a warning to me to read before I speak; but Mr. +Copley says no, that the world would lose more in one way than it +would gain in the other. I tried my quotations this morning, and +stuck fast in the middle of the first. + +Mr. Copley says that aunt Celia has been feeing the vergers +altogether too much, and I wrote a song about it called "The Ballad +of the Vergers and the Foolish Virgin," which I sang to my guitar. +Mr. Copley says it is cleverer than anything he ever did with his +pencil, but of course he says that only to be agreeable. + +We all went to an evening service last night. Coming home, aunt +Celia walked ahead with Mrs. Benedict, who keeps turning up at the +most unexpected moments. She's going to build a Gothicky memorial +chapel somewhere. I don't know for whom, unless it's for Benedict +Arnold. I don't like her in the least, but four is certainly a more +comfortable number than three. I scarcely ever have a moment alone +with Mr. Copley; for go where I will and do what I please, aunt +Celia has the most perfect confidence in my indiscretion, so she is +always en evidence. + +Just as we were turning into the quiet little street where we are +lodging I said, "Oh dear, I wish that I knew something about +architecture!" + +"If you don't know anything about it, you are certainly responsible +for a good deal of it," said Mr. Copley. + +"I? How do you mean?" I asked quite innocently, because I couldn't +see how he could twist such a remark as that into anything like +sentiment. + +"I have never built so many castles in my life as since I've known +you, Miss Schuyler," he said. + +"Oh," I answered as lightly as I could, "air-castles don't count." + +"The building of air-castles is an innocent amusement enough, I +suppose," he said, "but I'm committing the folly of living in mine. +I" - + +Then I was frightened. When, all at once, you find you have +something precious you only dimly suspected was to be yours, you +almost wish it hadn't come so soon. But just at that moment Mrs. +Benedict called to us, and came tramping back from the gate, and +hooked her supercilious, patronizing arm in Mr. Copley's, and asked +him into the sitting-room to talk over the "lady chapel" in her new +memorial church. Then aunt Celia told me they would excuse me, as I +had had a wearisome day; and there was nothing for me to do but to +go to bed, like a snubbed child, and wonder if I should ever know +the end of that sentence. And I listened at the head of the stairs, +shivering, but all that I could hear was that Mrs. Benedict asked +Mr. Copley to be her own architect. Her architect indeed! That +woman ought not to be at large! + + + +DURHAM, July 15 +At Farmer Hendry's. + + +We left York this morning, and arrived here about eleven o'clock. +It seems there is some sort of an election going on in the town, and +there was not a single fly at the station. Mr. Copley walked about +in every direction, but neither horse nor vehicle was to be had for +love nor money. At last we started to walk to the village, Mr. +Copley so laden with our hand-luggage that he resembled a pack-mule. +We made a tour of the inns, but not a single room was to be had, not +for that night nor for three days ahead, on account of that same +election. + +"Hadn't we better go on to Edinburgh, aunt Celia?" I asked. + +"Edinburgh? Never!" she replied. "Do you suppose that I would +voluntarily spend a Sunday in those bare Presbyterian churches until +the memory of these past ideal weeks has faded a little from my +memory? What, leave out Durham and spoil the set?" (She spoke of +the cathedrals as if they were souvenir spoons.) "I intended to +stay here for a week or more, and write up a record of our entire +trip from Winchester while the impressions were fresh in my mind." + +"And I had intended doing the same thing," said Mr. Copley. "That +is, I hoped to finish off my previous sketches, which are in a +frightful state of incompletion, and spend a good deal of time on +the interior of this cathedral, which is unusually beautiful." (At +this juncture aunt Celia disappeared for a moment to ask the barmaid +if, in her opinion, the constant consumption of malt liquors +prevents a more dangerous indulgence in brandy and whiskey. She is +gathering statistics, but as the barmaids can never collect their +thoughts while they are drawing ale, aunt Celia proceeds slowly.) + +"For my part," said I, with mock humility, "I am a docile person who +never has any intentions of her own, but who yields herself sweetly +to the intentions of other people in her immediate vicinity." + +"Are you?" asked Mr. Copley, taking out his pencil. + +"Yes, I said so. What are you doing?" + +"Merely taking note of your statement, that's all.--Now, Miss Van +Tyck, I have a plan to propose. I was here last summer with a +couple of Harvard men, and we lodged at a farmhouse half a mile from +the cathedral. If you will step into the coffee-room of the +Shoulder of Mutton and Cauliflower for an hour, I'll walk up to +Farmer Hendry's and see if they will take us in. I think we might +be fairly comfortable." + +"Can aunt Celia have Apollinaris and black coffee after her morning +bath?" I asked. + +"I hope, Katharine," said aunt Celia majestically,--"I hope that I +can accommodate myself to circumstances. If Mr. Copley can secure +lodgings for us, I shall be more than grateful." + +So here we are, all lodging together in an ideal English farmhouse. +There is a thatched roof on one of the old buildings, and the dairy +house is covered with ivy, and Farmer Hendry's wife makes a real +English courtesy, and there are herds of beautiful sleek Durham +cattle, and the butter and cream and eggs and mutton are delicious; +and I never, never want to go home any more. I want to live here +forever, and wave the American flag on Washington's birthday. + +I am so happy that I feel as if something were going to spoil it +all. Twenty years old to-day! I wish mamma were alive to wish me +many happy returns. + +Memoranda: Casual remark for breakfast table or perhaps for +luncheon,--it is a trifle heavy for breakfast: "Since the sixteenth +century and despite the work of Inigo Jones and the great Wren (not +Jenny Wren--Christopher), architecture has had, in England +especially, no legitimate development." + + + +HE + + + +DURHAM, July 19 + +O child of fortune, thy name is J. Q. Copley! How did it happen to +be election time? Why did the inns chance to be full? How did aunt +Celia relax sufficiently to allow me to find her a lodging? Why did +she fall in love with the lodging when found? I do not know. I +only know Fate smiles; that Kitty and I eat our morning bacon and +eggs together; that I carve Kitty's cold beef and pour Kitty's +sparkling ale at luncheon; that I go to vespers with Kitty, and dine +with Kitty, and walk in the gloaming with Kitty--and aunt Celia. +And after a day of heaven like this, like Lorna Doone's lover,--ay, +and like every other lover, I suppose,--I go to sleep, and the roof +above me swarms with angels, having Kitty under it! + +We were coming home from afternoon service, Kitty and I. (I am +anticipating for she was "Miss Schuyler" then, but never mind.) We +were walking through the fields, while Mrs. Benedict and aunt Celia +were driving. As we came across a corner of the bit of meadow land +that joins the stable and the garden, we heard a muffled roar, and +as we looked round we saw a creature with tossing horns and waving +tail making for us, head down, eyes flashing. Kitty gave a shriek. +We chanced to be near a pair of low bars. I hadn't been a college +athlete for nothing. I swung Kitty over the bars, and jumped after +her. But she, not knowing in her fright where she was nor what she +was doing; supposing, also, that the mad creature, like the villain +in the play, would "still pursue her," flung herself bodily into my +arms, crying, "Jack! Jack! Save me!" + +"It was the first time she had called me Jack," and I needed no +second invitation. I proceeded to save her,--in the usual way, by +holding her to my heart and kissing her lovely hair reassuringly, as +I murmured: "You are safe, my darling; not a hair of your precious +head shall be hurt. Don't be frightened." + +She shivered like a leaf. "I am frightened," she said. "I can't +help being frightened. He will chase us, I know. Where is he? +What is he doing now?" + +Looking up to determine if I need abbreviate this blissful moment, I +saw the enraged animal disappearing in the side door of the barn; +and it was a nice, comfortable Durham cow,--that somewhat rare but +possible thing, a sportive cow! + +"Is he gone?" breathed Kitty from my waistcoat. + +"Yes, he is gone--she is gone, darling. But don't move; it may come +again." + +My first too hasty assurance had calmed Kitty's fears, and she +raised her charming flushed face from its retreat and prepared to +withdraw. I did not facilitate the preparations, and a moment of +awkward silence ensued. + +"Might I inquire," I asked, "if the dear little person at present +reposing in my arms will stay there (with intervals for rest and +refreshment) for the rest of her natural life?" + +She withdrew entirely now, all but her hand, and her eyes sought the +ground. + +"I suppose I shall have to now,--that is, if you think--at least, I +suppose you do think--at any rate, you look as if you were thinking- +-that this has been giving you encouragement." + +"I do indeed,--decisive, undoubted, barefaced encouragement." + +"I don't think I ought to be judged as if I were in my sober +senses," she replied. "I was frightened within an inch of my life. +I told you this morning that I was dreadfully afraid of bulls, +especially mad ones, and I told you that my nurse frightened me, +when I was a child, with awful stories about them, and that I never +outgrew my childish terror. I looked everywhere about: the barn +was too far, the fence too high, I saw him coming, and there was +nothing but you and the open country; of course I took you. It was +very natural, I'm sure,--any girl would have done it." + +"To be sure," I replied soothingly, "any girl would have run after +me, as you say." + +"I didn't say any girl would have run after you,--you needn't +flatter yourself; and besides, I think I was really trying to +protect you as well as to gain protection; else why should I have +cast myself on you like a catamount, or a catacomb, or whatever the +thing is?" + +"Yes, darling, I thank you for saving my life, and I am willing to +devote the remainder of it to your service as a pledge of my +gratitude; but if you should take up life-saving as a profession, +dear, don't throw yourself on a fellow with" - + +"Jack! Jack!" she cried, putting her hand over my lips, and getting +it well kissed in consequence. "If you will only forget that, and +never, never taunt me with it afterwards, I'll--I'll--well, I'll do +anything in reason; yes, even marry you!" + + +CANTERBURY, July 31 +The Royal Fountain. + + +I was never sure enough of Kitty, at first, to dare risk telling her +about that little mistake of hers. She is such an elusive person +that I spend all my time in wooing her, and can never lay flattering +unction to my soul that she is really won. + +But after aunt Celia had looked up my family record and given a +provisional consent, and papa Schuyler had cabled a reluctant +blessing, I did not feel capable of any further self-restraint. + +It was twilight here in Canterbury, and we were sitting on the vine- +shaded veranda of aunt Celia's lodging. Kitty's head was on my +shoulder. There is something very queer about that; when Kitty's +head is on my shoulder, I am not capable of any consecutive train of +thought. When she puts it there I see stars, then myriads of stars, +then, oh! I can't begin to enumerate the steps by which ecstasy +mounts to delirium; but at all events, any operation which demands +exclusive use of the intellect is beyond me at these times. Still I +gathered my stray wits together and said, "Kitty!" + +"Yes, Jack?" + +"Now that nothing but death or marriage can separate us, I have +something to confess to you." + +" Yes," she said serenely, "I know what you are going to say. He +was a cow." + +I lifted her head from my shoulder sternly, and gazed into her +childlike, candid eyes. + +"You mountain of deceit! How long have you known about it?" + +"Ever since the first. Oh, Jack, stop looking at me in that way! +Not the very first, not when I--not when you--not when we--no, not +then, but the next morning I said to Farmer Hendry, 'I wish you +would keep your savage bull chained up while we are here; aunt Celia +is awfully afraid of them, especially those that go mad, like +yours!' 'Lor', miss,' said Farmer Hendry, 'he haven't been pastured +here for three weeks. I keep him six mile away. There ben't +nothing but gentle cows in the home medder.' But I didn't think +that you knew, you secretive person! I dare say you planned the +whole thing in advance, in order to take advantage of my fright!" + +"Never! I am incapable of such an unnecessary subterfuge! Besides, +Kitty, I could not have made an accomplice of a cow, you know." + +" Then," she said, with great dignity, "if you had been a gentleman +and a man of honor, you would have cried, 'Unhand me, girl! You are +clinging to me under a misunderstanding!'" + + + +SHE + + + +CHESTER, August 8 +The Grosvenor. + +Jack and I are going over this same ground next summer, on our +wedding trip. We shall sail for home next week, and we haven't half +done justice to the cathedrals. After the first two, we saw nothing +but each other on a general background of architecture. I hope my +mind is improved, but oh, I am so hazy about all the facts I have +read since I knew Jack! Winchester and Salisbury stand out superbly +in my memory. They acquired their ground before it was occupied +with other matters. I shall never forget, for instance, that +Winchester has the longest spire and Salisbury the highest nave of +all the English cathedrals. And I shall never forget so long as I +live that Jane Austen and Isaac Newt- Oh dear! was it Isaac Newton +or Izaak Walton that was buried in Winchester and Salisbury? To +think that that interesting fact should have slipped from my mind, +after all the trouble I took with it! But I know that it was Isaac +somebody, and that he was buried in--well, he was buried in one of +those two places. I am not certain which, but I can ask Jack; he is +sure to know. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext Cathedral Courtship, Kate Douglas Wiggin + |