She had learnt that deans are rather grand people--almost
as much so as admirals; that they wear shovel-hats to distinguish
them from the common ruck of rectors; that they lived in fine
houses in a cathedral close; and that they drive in a victoria with
a coachman in livery. So much essential knowledge of the church of
Christ she had gained for herself by personal observation; for
facts like these were what interested Dolly. She couldn't
understand, then, why she and her mother should live precariously
in a very small attic; should never be visited by her mother's
brothers, one of whom she knew to be a Prebendary of Old Sarum,
while the other she saw gazetted as a Colonel of Artillery; and
should be totally ignored by her mother's sister, Ermyntrude, who
lolled in a landau down the sunny side of Bond Street.
At first, indeed, it only occurred to Dolly that her mother's
extreme and advanced opinions had induced a social breach between
herself and the orthodox members of her family. Even that Dolly
resented; why should mamma hold ideas of her own which shut her
daughter out from the worldly advantages enjoyed to the full by the
rest of her kindred? Dolly had no particular religious ideas; the
subject didn't interest her; and besides, she thought the New
Testament talked about rich and poor in much the same unpractical
nebulous way that mamma herself did--in fact, she regarded it with
some veiled contempt as a rather sentimental radical publication.
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