Aldred

“ Aldred felt quite excited when Scene III was begun. She managed, without attracting anybody's attention, to take a stealthy peep through the doorway. Yes, there was Nellie, standing quite ready, and horrible enough to make even Aldred jump, though she was expecting to see her. All was in good [126] training, and Lorna was rapidly coming to the fatal lines. She delivered them with her usual lack of fire:
"The key fits well—now, wherefore should I fear? ”

“ In 1044 he was made bishop of Worcester. He was an active, politic, self-seeking man, more given to secular than to ecclesiastical life, a traveller, an ambassador, even a soldier. He did not escape the frequent accusations of simony and lack of learning, and was certainly greedy of gain. At the same time he was magnificent and courageous. King Eadward was much under his influence, for he valued the bishop's power of pacifying quarrels and winning over enemies. In 1046 Aldred probably arranged a peace with Gruffydd of North Wales. ”

“ About the year 1062, two Roman Cardinals came to Worcester with Aldred, who had just been translated from that see to the Archbishopric of York. They spent the whole of Lent in Wulstan’s monastery; and when, at Easter, they returned to the court of Edward the Confessor, they recommended him for the Bishop to succeed Aldred; and Aldred himself, Archbishop Stigand, and Harold, all concurred in the same advice. The people and clergy of Worcester with one voice chose the good Prior Wulstan; his election was confirmed by the king, and he received the appointment. ”

“ Aldred introduced the Lotharingian discipline, which Leofric and Gisa adopted at Exeter and Wells. Greedy as he was, he did not grudge spending money for the cause of the church. At York and Southwell he built a refectory, so that the canons might eat together, and no longer frequent the market in unseemly dress. He bade them wear clerical garments, be attentive to almsgiving, and keep the festivals of the departed. ”

“ Our bounds stop just at the beginning of Chetbourne. We mayn't go into the town, nor along the promenade."
"Why, what a swindle!" exclaimed Aldred. "I thought we were going to have some fun!"
"Isn't the walk enough for you?" asked Freda.
"It's very nice; but it would have been amusing to see a few niggers, or some performing dogs."
"The post office is our limit," said Blanche. "We always call a halt there. They have a splendid set of picture postcards, and some nice Goss china. A good many of us are collecting Goss."
"Then mayn't we go the least little scrap farther?" pleaded Aldred. ”

“ Cuthberht and all the saints in common that are in the island. And Ethilwaed, bishop of the people of the Lindisfarne island, made it firm on the outside, and covered it as well as he could. And Billfrith, the anchorite, he wrought in smith's work the ornaments on the outside. And Aldred, an unworthy and most miserable priest, glossed it above in English.’ Again, at the beginning of St. Mark's gospel (f. 88 b) is a shorter entry: ‘Thou living God, be mindful of Eadfrid, and Ædilwald, and Billfrid, and Aldred, sinners ”

“ But now by the aduise of an abbat called Aldred, they redéemed his libertie, and ordeined him king to rule both Danes and Englishmen in that countrie. It was said, that the same Aldred being abbat of holie Iland, was warned in a vision by S. Cuthberd, to giue counsell both to the Danes and Englishmen, to make the same Guthrid king. This chanced about the 13 yeare of the reigne of Alured king of Westsaxons. ”

“ I must manage better if we intend to serve any after dinner to Miss Drummond and Mademoiselle."
"And I must remember hot plates!" said Mabel. "I should be ashamed to face Miss Drummond if we left out such an important item as that. By the by, Aldred, did you fill the kettle again, so that we can have plenty of hot water for washing up? It takes a long time to heat the boiler."
Aldred jumped up rather guiltily. As a matter of fact, she had drained the kettle, and thoughtlessly [53] placed it empty upon the stove. ”

“ Grassingford always looks particularly pretty in spring, when the trees are just coming out, and we'll get Father to take us about in the motor, so that you can see the country. Do you ride?"
"A little," said Aldred. Her achievements in that line were limited to a donkey at the seaside, but she was not going to confess her lack of experience.
"Then we'll have some glorious scampers on Belle and Beauty. Belle really belongs to Geoffrey—that's my stepbrother, who is married, and lives a mile away—but he lends her to me sometimes, and I am sure he will this Easter if I ask him. ”

“ Miss Drummond was manifestly pleased with her progress; it was not often that a new girl came so quickly to the fore. Aldred had been sent to her with a reputation for both shirking lessons and defying authority, so she flattered herself that the atmosphere of Birkwood had worked a change, and remedied both these defects. ”

“ In spite of herself, Aldred could not stifle a groan of despair.
"Do you really feel so poorly? Are you in pain? Perhaps we ought to send for the doctor. I'll go and fetch Mother immediately; she's a splendid nurse."
"No, no! Please don't!" cried Aldred. "I dare say I shall be better soon. I don't want to make a fuss, and upset everybody."
"You never do that, you're too unselfish and considerate. I know how ill you must feel, to mention it at all. I hope it's nothing serious!" and Mabel rushed off in quite a fever of excitement and alarm, to fetch her mother.
Lady Muriel was kindness itself. ”

“ She would settle her plans at once. Stay three years here at Aldred House, then go to college. During the four years there would be plenty of time to arrange the rest. In her case it would be teaching.
"How comforting you are!" and there was both depth and sincerity in the tone.
"Doesn't Mrs. Aldred advise you to go on?" Helen asked.
"Oh, yes. And Miss Grace has been very encouraging. But when I look at the rest of you girls and hear your bright talk, I feel so out of place."
"I have a belief that school is the help to enable us to find our right places in the world if we take it up earnestly. ”

“ She had come to the Grange prepared to be very critical, and even censorious; but once introduced to Aldred, she had immediately fallen under the spell of her striking appearance and winning manners. No one knew better than Lady Muriel, however, that a picturesque exterior is not always an index to the mind; so she had a long talk with Miss Drummond about Aldred's character, and received such a favourable report that her fears were quite set at rest.
"I find your friend utterly charming," she said in private to Mabel, who was waiting in some anxiety to hear the verdict. ”

“ Aldred soon found that she had to revise entirely her old method—that a careless German exercise could completely cancel a brilliant score in history, and that she must give equal attention to every subject if she wished to chronicle a record. The little tricks she had practised on Miss Perkins were not equally successful at Birkwood: she had tried reeling off her lessons very fast, so as to gloss over mistakes, but Miss Bardsley would allow her to finish, and then say: "Yes; now you may repeat it again, slowly. I did not quite catch [105] the second person plural;" ”

“ Ethelbert, raised warre against king Ardulfe, and fought a battell with him at Walleg, but king Ardulfe got the vpper hand, and chased Wade and other his enimies out of the 799. field. In the yéere 799, duke Aldred that had murthered Ethelbert or Athelred king of Northumberland, was slaine by another duke called Chorthmond in reuenge of the death of his maister the said Ethelbert. ”

“ It is always better to err on the right side, and think too highly than too ill of people, but Mabel's mistake was to take Aldred so utterly on trust, and to blind herself wilfully to the many small indications of character that might easily have shown her that her idol was very far from perfection. ”

“ There were the bright and sweet, who had no aims above the average, and who would get trained into nice, wholesome girls and make good wives and mothers.
Helen enjoyed her studies immensely. The botany rambles were one of her great pleasures, and when she went at the wonders of astronomy she was enraptured.
"Such a student is worth having; she inspires the rest," Mrs. Wiley said to Mrs. Aldred. "There is a girl who should go to college."
"Yes, she ought," but in her secret soul Mrs. Aldred feared that was not Mrs. Van Dorn's design. ”

“ The rehearsals took place in the classroom, and Fatima was accustomed to use the ordinary door, to represent that of the fatal cupboard. Aldred persuaded one of the servants to dress up in a sheet and wait about in the passage, so that when Lorna looked out she should see something calculated to surprise her. Nellie, an under-housemaid, willingly entered into the scheme, and even improved upon it, according to her own ideas, by whitening her face with flour, so as to make herself as ghost-like as possible. ”

“ I'm never like the good boy in the story-books who gets up readily; it's always a wrench for me."
"We've hard enough work to rouse you, certainly," admitted Dora. "If it weren't for us, you'd be sweetly slumbering when the breakfast bell rings. I can't [79] imagine how you'd manage if you had a room to yourself, instead of being in No. 5. Who wakes first, Aldred, you or Mabel?"
"Both together, generally," replied Aldred. "I don't see how anybody could sleep through such a fearful clatter as the bell makes. It gives me a horrible start every morning. It's worse than an alarm clock?" ”

“ Well done!" cried both girls and teachers, who, knowing the previous achievements of the Fourth Form, recognized the amount of cleverness needed to have so enormously raised the standard of acting, and appreciated Aldred's exertions.
"You must have a better part yourself, next time, my dear," said Miss Drummond, as she offered her congratulations. "You can teach others so well that we should like to see you taking a leading character. ”

“ I've drawn Bluebeard this time, and I mean to stick to him, whatever sort of a fairy Ursula makes."
"I shan't be such a bad one, I'm sure!" declared Ursula, rather offended. "You wouldn't make a better, Aldred; your hair's darker than mine."
"Well, I don't know how Lorna is going to learn all Fatima's long part," Aldred ventured to object; "she never gets through her recitations in class without a mistake." ”

“ There are occasionally people in this world who seem to have the faculty of drawing the very best out of those with whom they come in contact. They create their own atmosphere, and by the strength of their winning personalities rouse all the sleeping good in others. Such a friend was Mabel, and Aldred, despite her false position, could not fail to be influenced by daily living with a character so much sweeter and more self-controlled than her own. ”

“ ALDRED OVERHEARS A SURPRISING STORY
[41] So this was the explanation of Mabel's violent attachment! She had been attracted, not by Aldred's real personality, but by qualities which she believed her to possess. What would she think, when she learnt that Aldred was not the girl she imagined? Suppose she were to drop the friendship as suddenly as she had taken it up? She might possibly prefer to have her bedroom to herself once more, and would feel no further interest in one who had not done anything particularly worthy of admiration. Aldred turned quite cold at the idea. ”

“ After the regular hours at school, the holidays are sometimes apt to upset young people. If your head aches, wouldn't you like to go to your bedroom, and rest quite quietly?"
"Yes, please," said Aldred.
She was devoutly thankful for the suggestion. Her one longing was to be alone, so that she might realize the blow that threatened her, and plan some means of averting it. Mabel's well-meant sympathy was almost agony in the circumstances; all she wanted was time to collect her thoughts. It was with a sense of intense relief, therefore, that she allowed herself to be put to lie down in her room. ”

“ For ye must bear in mind that for six years I had toiled without end within the convent kitchen, and beheld no man, young or old, goodly or wizen, but Godmund the priest. It was a fair sight that greeted the Earl, that of Algive Aldred's daughter, now full-grown to womanhood—two and twenty years had she—fair even in her weeds of black, with her eyes lowered, yet she peering, as I knew, all the while from beneath her lashes. And so, when he then beheld her, Sweyn Godwinson grew pale beneath his bronze, and stood stock-still before her, his look all wonder. ”

“ Deep down in her heart lay always the consciousness that she was sailing under false colours; every now and then Mabel would impute to her some better motive than really actuated her, or some virtue that she did not possess, and Aldred's inward monitor would give her an uneasy twinge, and remind her how very far she was below that high standard. There was also constantly present the dread that Mabel might learn the truth from some outside source ”

“ Keith could not understand it, and Aunt Bertha had repressed it sternly. Modern schoolgirls are certainly not sentimental; they are more prone to laugh at poetic fancies than to admire them: and Aldred knew that on this score she would probably meet with ridicule from her form-mates. In consequence, she confined herself in public to the practical and prosaic, and, with the exception of an occasional private confidence to Mabel, kept her reflections locked in her own bosom. ”