This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.
HOPES AND FEARS
or
SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF A SPINSTER
by
CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
ILLUSTRATED BY HERBERTGANDY
London
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
new york: the macmillan company
1899
All rights reserved
p.iLIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
“She felt, rather than saw him watching her all theway from the garden-gate to the wood.” | Frontispiece |
“I find I can’t spare you, Honora; you hadbetter stay at the Holt for good.” | Page 11 |
“He drew the paper before him. Lucilla startedto her feet.” | Page 296 |
p.1PART I
CHAPTER I
Who ought to go then and who ought to stay!
Where do you draw an obvious border line?Cecil and Mary
Among the numerous steeples counted from the waters of theThames, in the heart of the City, and grudged by modern economyas cumberers of the soil of Mammon, may be remarked an abortivelittle dingy cupola, surmounting two large round eyes which haveevidently stared over the adjacent roofs ever since the Fire thatbegan at Pie-corner and ended in Pudding-lane.
Strange that the like should have been esteemed the highestwalk of architecture, and yet Honora Charlecote well rememberedthe days when St. Wulstan’s was her boast, so large, soclean, so light, so Grecian, so far surpassing damp oldHiltonbury Church. That was at an age when her enthusiasmfound indiscriminate food in whatever had a hold upon heraffections, the nearer her heart being of course the moreadmirable in itself, and it would be difficult to say which sheloved the most ardently, her city home in Woolstone-lane, orHiltonbury Holt, the old family seat, where her father was awelcome guest whenever his constitution required relaxation fromthe severe toils of a London rector.
Woolstone-lane was a locality that sorely tried the coachmenof Mrs. Charlecote’s West End connections, situate as itwas on the very banks of the Thames, and containing little saveoffices and warehouses, in the midst of which stoodHonora’s home. It was not the rectory, but had beeninherited from City relations, and it antedated the Fire, so thatit was one of the most perfect remnants of the glories of themerchant princes of ancient London. It had a court toitself, shut in by high walls, and paved with round-headedstones, with gangways of flags in mercy to the feet; the frontwas faced with hewn squares after the