She wishes to hear from you in an hour or two: it's a party, I think."
He threw the note over to his wife, who, after apologizing to the
company, opened, and began to read it.
Honest old Mainwaring was an excellent man, and did a great deal of
good in a quiet way, considering his sphere of life. In attending to the
sermon, however, when at church, he laid himself back in his pew, shut
his eyes, put the end of his gold-headed cane to his lips, and set
a criticising. If all the rhetorical rules were duly observed, the
language clear, and the parts of the sermon well arranged, and if,
besides, there was neither false accent, nor false quantity, nor any
bad grammar, he pronounced it admirable, and praised the preacher to
the skies. Anything short of this, however, he looked upon not only as
a failure, but entertained strong doubts of the man's orthodoxy, as well
as of the purity of his doctrine.
"Yes, my dear," replied Mrs. Mainwaring, after having glanced over
the note, "you are right; it is a party; and we are both asked; but I
wonder, above all things, that Miss Fletcher should never cross her t's;
then the tails of her letters are so long that they go into the line
below them, which looks so slovenly, and shows that her writing must
have bean very much neglected.
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