Chapter 16.8 - Shirley

But a very lovely picture of that tiresome quality. She presented quite a contrast to Caroline. There was style in every fold of her dress and every line of her figure. The rich silk suited her better than a simpler costume. The deep embroidered scarf became her. She wore it negligently but gracefully. The wreath on her bonnet crowned her well. The attention to fashion, the tasteful appliance of ornament in each portion of her dress, were quite in place with her. All this suited her. Like the frank light in her eyes, the rallying smile about her lips. Like her shaft-straight carriage and lightsome step. Caroline took her hand when she was dressed, hurried her downstairs, out of doors, and thus they sped through the fields, laughing as they went. Looking very much like a snow-white dove and gem-tinted bird of paradise, joined in social flight. Thanks to Miss Helston's promptitude, they arrived in good time. While yet trees hid the church, they heard the bell tolling a measured but urgent summons for all to assemble. The trooping in of numbers, the trampling of many steps, and murmuring of many voices were likewise audible. From a rising ground, they presently saw on the Winbury Road, the Winbury School approaching. It numbered five hundred souls. The rector and curate, Bultby and Dunn, headed it. The former, looming large in full canonicals, walking as became, a benefist priest, under the canopy of shovel-hat, with the dignity of an ample corporation, the embellishment of the squarest and vastest of black coats, and the support of the stoutest of gold-headed canes. As the doctor walked, he now and then slightly flourished his cane, and inclined his shovel-hat, with a dogmatical wag, towards his aide-de-camp. That aide-de-camp, Dunn, to wit, narrow as the line of his shape was, compared to the broad bulk of his principal, contrived, notwithstanding, to look every inch a curate.