The rector's letters, and those of his wife and mother-in-law, had
all been tolerably short and pithy, written in a straight hand,
with the lines very close together. Sometimes the whole letter was
contained on a mere scrap of paper. The paper was very yellow, and
the ink very brown; some of the sheets were (as Miss Matty made me
observe) the old original post, with the stamp in the corner
representing a post-boy riding for life and twanging his horn. The
letters of Mrs Jenkyns and her mother were fastened with a great
round red wafer; for it was before Miss Edgeworth's "patronage" had
banished wafers from polite society. It was evident, from the
tenor of what was said, that franks were in great request, and were
even used as a means of paying debts by needy members of
Parliament. The rector sealed his epistles with an immense coat of
arms, and showed by the care with which he had performed this
ceremony that he expected they should be cut open, not broken by
any thoughtless or impatient hand. Now, Miss Jenkyns's letters
were of a later date in form and writing. She wrote on the square
sheet which we have learned to call old-fashioned. Her hand was
admirably calculated, together with her use of many-syllabled
words, to fill up a sheet, and then came the pride and delight of
crossing.
Pages:
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93