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Yonge, Charlotte Mary, 1823-1901

"The Three Brides"

Another would climb on any pinnacle that
any one would erect for the purpose, and become alienated from
whatever interfered with such eminence.
So as nobody seemed so willing to own Cecil's claims to county
supremacy as Lady Tyrrell, her bias was all towards Sirenwood; and
whereas such practices as prevailed at Dunstone evidently were
viewed as obsolete and narrow by these new friends, Cecil was
willing to prove herself superior to them, and was far more
irritated than convinced when her husband appealed to her former
habits.
The separation of the welfare of body and soul had never occurred to
the beneficence of Dunstone, and it cost Cecil a qualm to accept it;
but she could not be a goody in the eyes of Sirenwood; and besides,
she was reading some contemporary literature, which made it plain
that any religious instruction was a most unjustifiable interference
with the great law, "Am I my brother's keeper?" and so, when she met
Anne with a handful of texts neatly written out in printing letters,
she administered her warning.
Cecil and Anne had become allies to a certain extent, chiefly
through their joint disapproval of Rosamond, not to say of Julius;
and the order was so amazing that Anne did not at first take it in;
and when she understood that all mention of religion was forbidden,
she said, "I do not think I ought to yield in this.


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