FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  
but she took no apparent notice. "Is Cliffe-on-Sea your destination?" she asked presently. "No; is it yours?" with a quick note of alarm in her voice. "Oh, I am so sorry!" as Bessie nodded. "I hoped we should have travelled together to London. I do dislike travelling alone, but my friend was too ill to accompany me, and I did not want to stay at Islip another day; it was such a stupid place, so dull; so I said I must come, and this is the result." "And you are going to London? Why, your journey is but just beginning. Cliffe-on-Sea is where I live, and we cannot be more than two miles off. Oh, what will you do if we are detained here for two or three hours?" "I am sure I don't know," returned the other girl disconsolately, and her eyes filled with tears again. "It is nearly five now, and it will be too late to go on to London; but I dare not stay at a hotel by myself. What will mamma say? She will be dreadfully vexed with me for not waiting for Mrs. Moultrie--she never will let me travel alone, and I have disobeyed her." "That is a great pity," returned Bessie gravely; but politeness forbade her to say more. She was old-fashioned enough to think that disobedience to parents was a heinous offence. She did not understand the present code, that allows young people to set up independent standards of duty. To her the fifth commandment was a very real commandment, and just as binding in the nineteenth century as when the young dwellers in tents first listened to it under the shadow of the awful Mount. Bessie's gravely disapproving look brought a mocking little smile to the other girl's face; her quick comprehension evidently detected the rebuke, but she only answered flippantly: "Mamma is too much used to my disobedience to give it a thought; she knows I will have my way in things, and she never minds; she is sensible enough to know grown-up girls generally have wills of their own." "I think I must have been brought up differently," returned Bessie simply. "I recollect in our nursery days mother used to tell us that little bodies ought not to have grown-up wills; and when we got older, and wanted to get the reins in our own hands, as young people will, she would say, 'Gently, gently, girls; you may be grown up, but you will never be as old as your parents--'" But here Bessie stopped, on seeing that her companion was struggling with suppressed merriment. "It does sound so funny, don't you know! Oh, I don't me
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   5   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29  
30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Bessie

 

London

 

returned

 

brought

 
people
 

parents

 

disobedience

 

gravely

 

Cliffe

 

commandment


disapproving
 

mocking

 
comprehension
 
binding
 

standards

 

independent

 
nineteenth
 

shadow

 
listened
 
century

dwellers

 

wanted

 

bodies

 

mother

 
suppressed
 
stopped
 

gently

 

Gently

 

struggling

 

companion


nursery

 
recollect
 

thought

 

flippantly

 

detected

 
rebuke
 

answered

 

differently

 
simply
 

merriment


generally

 

things

 

evidently

 
stupid
 

accompany

 

journey

 

beginning

 

result

 

friend

 

travelling