- end_line
- 2014
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T20:48:52.918Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 1964
- text
- been officially invited to preside, or be at all present at the
semi-monthly meetings; though he supposed, that far from having any
scruples against so doing, she would be very glad to associate that way,
with the good people of the village.
"Now, brother Pierre"--said Mrs. Glendinning, rising from Miss
Llanyllyn's huge cushioned chair--"throw my shawl around me; and
good-evening to Lucy's aunt.--There, we shall be late."
As they walked along, she added--"Now, Pierre, I know you are apt to be
a little impatient sometimes, of these sewing scenes; but courage; I
merely want to peep in on them; so as to get some inkling of what they
would indeed be at; and then my promised benefactions can be better
selected by me. Besides, Pierre, I could have had Dates escort me, but I
preferred you; because I want you to know who they are you live among;
how many really pretty, and naturally-refined dames and girls you shall
one day be lord of the manor of. I anticipate a rare display of rural
red and white."
Cheered by such pleasant promises, Pierre soon found himself leading his
mother into a room full of faces. The instant they appeared, a
gratuitous old body, seated with her knitting near the door, squeaked
out shrilly--"Ah! dames, dames,--Madam Glendinning!--Master Pierre
Glendinning!"
Almost immediately following this sound, there came a sudden,
long-drawn, unearthly, girlish shriek, from the further corner of the
long, double room. Never had human voice so affected Pierre before.
Though he saw not the person from whom it came, and though the voice was
wholly strange to him, yet the sudden shriek seemed to split its way
clean through his heart, and leave a yawning gap there. For an instant,
he stood bewildered; but started at his mother's voice; her arm being
still in his. "Why do you clutch my arm so, Pierre? You pain me. Pshaw!
some one has fainted,--nothing more."
Instantly Pierre recovered himself, and affecting to mock at his own
trepidation, hurried across the room to offer his services, if such
were needed. But dames and maidens had been all beforehand with him; the
lights were wildly flickering in the air-current made by the flinging
open of the casement, near to where the shriek had come. But the climax
of the tumult was soon past; and presently, upon closing the casement,
it subsided almost wholly. The elder of the spinster Pennies, advancing
to Mrs. Glendinning, now gave her to understand, that one of the further
crowd of industrious girls present, had been attacked by a sudden, but
fleeting fit, vaguely imputable to some constitutional disorder or
other. She was now quite well again. And so the company, one and all,
seemingly acting upon their natural good-breeding, which in any one at
bottom, is but delicacy and charity, refrained from all further
curiosity; reminded not the girl of what had passed; noted her scarce at
all; and all needles stitched away as before.
- title
- Chunk 2