I suppose no one
has any objection to a walk, at least. Shall we get ready?'
Everyone consented, and they went to prepare. It should be said, in
excuse for Elizabeth, that both she and Helen had been absent from
home at the time of the establishment of the Mechanics' Institute at
Abbeychurch, so that they had not known of their father's opposition
to it. Helen, who, when at Dykelands, had been nearer the
manufacturing districts, had heard more of the follies and mischiefs
committed by some of the favourers of these institutions.
Unfortunately, however, her temper had prevented her from reasoning
calmly, and Elizabeth had wilfully blinded herself, and shut her ears
to conviction, being determined to follow her own course. Anne, who
had always lived at Merton Hall, excepting two months of each year,
which she spent in London, knew nothing of country town cabals, and
thinking the lecture was of the same nature as those she had heard in
London, asked no questions, as she had not heard the debate between
Elizabeth and Helen. Katherine, however, hesitated to go without the
permission of her father and mother; or, in other words, she was
afraid they would reprove her, and she was not unwilling to listen to
Helen's representations on the subject, while they were putting on
their bonnets.
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