Modern Broods | Page 8

would see what their neighbours were like, and
Thekla was delighted with the jolly garden and places to scramble in.
On this first Sunday they were let alone to explore the garden before
the walk to church, which Magdalen foresaw would be a long affair
with Mrs. Best. After their decorous stillness at breakfast, it was a
contrast to hear the merry voices and laughter outside, but it subsided
as soon as she approached, though she did not hear the murmured
ripple, "Here comes maiden aunt! Behold--Quite a spicy hat!"
In truth, Magdalen's hat was a pretty new one, not by any means
unsuitable to her age and appearance, and altogether her air was more
stylish than the country town breeding was accustomed to; her dress
perfectly plain, but well made.
Vera was perhaps the most sensible of the perfection of the turn-out;
Agatha chiefly felt that her more decorated skirt and mantle had their
inconveniences in walking through the red mud of the lanes, impeded
by books and umbrella, which left no leisure to admire the primroses
that studded the deep banks and which delighted Thekla in the freedom
of short skirts.
Magdalen herself had enough to do in steering along such a substantial
craft as poor Mrs. Best, used to church-going along a street, and
shrouded under a squirrel mantle of many pounds weight.
Barely in time was the convoy when at last the exhausted lady was
helped over the stone stile that led to the churchyard. Highly
picturesque was the grey structure outside, but within modernism had
not done much; the chancel was feebly fitted after the ideas of the
"fifties," but the faded woodwork of the nave was intact, and Magdalen
still had to sit in the grim pew of her predecessors.
The girls' looks at each other might have suited the entrance to a
condemned cell, and the pulpit towered above them with a faded green
cushion, that seemed in danger of tumbling down over their heads.
The service was a plain one, but reverent and careful; the music had a
considerable element of harmonium mixed with schoolchild voices,
and the sermon from an elderly man was a good one; but when the
move to go out was made, and the young ones were beyond ear-shot of
their elders, the exclamations were, "Well, I never thought to have gone
back to Georgian era."

"Exactly the element of our maiden aunt."
"And nobody to be seen."
"Naggie, why do they shut one up in boxes?"
"Just to daunt Flapsy's roving eye, Tickle, my dear."
"Don't, Polly. There was nobody to be seen if we hadn't been in a box.
Of course no one comes there but stately old farmers and their smart
daughters. I saw one with a Gainsborough hat, and a bunch of cock's
feathers, with a scarlet cactus cocking it up behind."
"Flapsy made use of her opportunities, you see. Being 'emparocked in a
pew' cannot daunt her spirit of research."
"Now, Nag, I only meant to show you what impossible people they
are."
"Natives who will repay the study perhaps," continued Agatha, reading
as though from a book of travels. "We were able to observe a group of
the aborigines at their devotions. Conspicuous was a not ungraceful
young female, whose head, ornamented with a plume of feathers,
towered above the enclosure in which she was secluded, while an aged
fakir, hakem or medicine man pronounced from a loftier structure
resembling a sentry box."
"Children, children, that's the wrong way," came Magdalen's voice
from behind. "You must turn into that lane. Wait a moment."
They waited till Mrs. Best's lagging steps allowed Magdalen to come
up with them, but dead silence fell on them when Mrs. Best observed,
"You were very merry." They could not speak of the cause. Perhaps
Magdalen divined something, for she said, "We hope to make some
improvements, and so indeed does Mr. Earl, but he is very poor.
Besides, newcomers must work slowly."
The doubt whether she had heard Agatha's speech made the girls
conscious enough to keep from responding, as she meant them to do,
by cheerful criticisms, and indeed the task of cheering and dragging on
Mrs. Best was quite enough to occupy her. There was only three years
difference in their ages, but this seemed to have made a great interval
between one whose metier had been to be youthful and active, and her
who had to be staid and dignified.
The early dinner passed in all demureness and formality, and the poor
visitor was too much tired for any more services to be thought of for
her. Magdalen explained that when the days would be longer, she

thought of walking to Rockstone for evensong, but now the best way
was to go to the chapel at