Page:Essays in miniature.djvu/59

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
THE OPPRESSION OF NOTES
55

est, childish fashion, she loved its pretty sound! Who can forget the pathetic scene where she attempts to recite it, and has only finished the first line,


"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,"


when Godfrey, whom I always thought, and still think, a very disagreeable boy, interrupts her ruthlessly.

"'What is meant by the "curfew"? What is meant by "tolls"? What is a "knell"? What is meant by "parting day"?'

"'Godfrey, I cannot tell the meaning of every word, but I know the general meaning. It means that the day is going, that it is evening, that it is growing dark. Now let me go on.'

"'Go on,' said Godfrey, 'and let us see what you will do when you come to "the boast of heraldry," to "the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault," to the "village Hampden," to "some mute inglorious Milton," and to "some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood," you who have not come to Cromwell yet, in the history of England.'"