FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107  
108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   >>   >|  
Carlyon must have an artistic eye." "I expect it was Elizabeth's idea," returned Cedric lazily; "she is quite gone on poppies. She and David are rival gardeners, and have no end of discussions. My word, to listen to them one would think they were a later edition of Adam and Eve." Now, why did Malcolm frown at this boyish speech, and drop the subject hastily? But Cedric only stretched himself with a yawn and went on-- "It is my private opinion that David knows very little about it, except what he gets from gardening books. But he is so full of hobbies, and so energetic, and so determined not to be beaten, and takes such a lot of trouble, that even Elizabeth is astonished at the results. She comes down here and gives him ideas, and then he works them out, or he potters about our place and talks to Johnson, and gets hints that way." "I never saw such a fellow for picking other people's brains," continued Cedric enthusiastically. "Why, he got a splendid degree at Oxford; I remember how surprised his own father was." "Carlyon has a father then?" Though Malcolm was so lukewarm on the subject of the young curate's merits, he felt some degree of curiosity about him. "To be sure he has," replied Cedric. "Carlyon senior is a dry, chippy sort of little man, as meek as a mouse and as good as gold. He is curate-in-charge of an iron church at Stokeley; it is in the Black Country, you know--a regular inferno of a place--nothing but tall chimneys and blasting furnaces, heaps of slag and rows of miners' cottages. Stokeley town is a mile or two farther on; it is a beastly sort of hole." "It does not sound an inviting spot certainly." "Well, it is not exactly a Garden of Eden," returned Cedric with a grin. "But, as David says, it has its advantages, for one can wear out one's old clothes quite comfortably. I believe there is really beautiful country two or three miles away." "I suppose Mr. Carlyon's mother is living too?" But here Cedric shook his head. "No, she died when David was a youngster--consumption, I believe--and two or three of the children died too. But there is one daughter, Theo they call her--for Theodora, I expect--and a precious uncomfortable piece of goods she is." Malcolm raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner, but Cedric needed no encouragement to rattle on. "She is a young woman with a mission--a sort of female Moody and Sankey rolled in one--and she calls herself the Miner's Friend. Sh
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107  
108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Cedric
 

Carlyon

 

Malcolm

 

returned

 

father

 
curate
 
Stokeley
 

degree

 
Elizabeth
 

expect


subject

 

miners

 
furnaces
 

chimneys

 
blasting
 

cottages

 
raised
 
inviting
 

beastly

 

eyebrows


farther

 

inferno

 

rattle

 

charge

 

church

 

needed

 

manner

 

questioning

 

regular

 

Friend


Country

 
children
 

consumption

 

daughter

 

female

 
beautiful
 

country

 
suppose
 

Sankey

 
youngster

rolled
 

mother

 
living
 
mission
 

Theodora

 

Garden

 
precious
 

uncomfortable

 
clothes
 

comfortably