I suppose you cannot
go to the Cathedral, Julius?"
"No, Bindon will not come back till his brother's holiday is over,
nor do I even know where to write to him. Oh! here comes Anne. Now
for her impressions."
Anne had brought her little gift for Mrs. Poynsett, and displayed
her presents for Glen Fraser, but as to what she had seen it made
her shudder and say, "You were right, Julius, I did not know people
could go on so! And with all those poor people ill close by. Miss
Slater, who sat on the stairs just below me tying up flowers, is
much grieved about a lad who was at work there till a fortnight ago,
and now is dying of a fever, and harassed by all the rattling of the
carriages."
"What! close by! Nothing infectious, I hope?"
"The doctor called it gastric fever, but no one was to hear of it
lest there should be an alarm; and it was too late to change the
place of the bazaar, though it is so sad to have all that gaiety
close at hand."
If these were the impressions of Anne and Joanna early in the day,
what were they later, when, in those not sustained by excitement,
spirit and energy began to flag? Cecil's counter, with her
excellent and expensive wares, and her own dignified propriety, was
far less popular than those where the goods were cheaper and the
saleswomen less inaccessible, and she was not only disappointed at
her failure, but vexed when told that the articles must be raffled
for.
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