sympathy some of its effects upon me? I shudder as I recall that fearful scene; it is better not to think of it, and to be thankful that the great catastrophes of the future are not wielded by our feeble and clumsy hands.
‘What a volte-face, as you say, this outcome of the general elections and the accession of the Bunglers to power! And our excellent friend Lord Humnoddie Prime Minister, too! I could not help telling his wife what you said about him. She took it good-naturedly, as she does everything, and said that, entre nous, her own opinion of her husband’s capacity as helmsman of the ship of state is much the same as yours.’
(Here followed some talk about the gossips and squabbles of Dulham village and neighbourhood.)
‘There was a great to-do here last Saturday evening with that poor mad woman Topsy Wriggles. I’m very glad they are going to remove her, because the demon of drink seems to get more and more hold on her. But it is curious that the madder and the more tipsy she gets, the more she falls to quoting scraps of Scripture in her fits. What a pity her propensity is! because she has evidently been well educated for a person in her station. I happened to be near the garden gate when she was in the thick of it, and could hear what she was saying, all the way from the public house. “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.” This I must tell you, Lesbia, made me feel very uncomfortable. I’m glad she’s going, and I hope she'll do better; we don’t want any more such mad women here.’
(The rest of the letter was occupied with domestic affairs.)
Mr Bristley was standing at the edge of a terrace by the lake side, looking up with his binocular at Mangerton
