A CATHEDRAL COURTSHIP

_By the same Author._

=Penelope's Irish Experiences.= 6s.

=Penelope's English Experiences.= Illustrated by Charles E. Brock. 6s.

=Penelope's Experiences in Scotland.= Illustrated by Charles E. Brock. 6s.

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_By Mrs. Wiggin & Miss Nora A. Smith._

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_LONDON: GAY AND BIRD._

[Illustration: 'Jack! Jack! save me!']

A Cathedral Courtship

BY Kate Douglas Wiggin

_ILLUSTRATED_

BY CHARLES E. BROCK

GAY AND BIRD 22 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND LONDON

1901

_All rights reserved_

_Originally published in 1893 with 'Penelope's English Experiences,' and reprinted 1893 (twice), 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897._

_PREFACE_

_'A Cathedral Courtship' was first published in 1893, appearing in a volume with 'Penelope's English Experiences.' In course of time, the latter story, finding unexpected favour in the public eyes, left its modest companion, and was promoted to a separate existence, with pictures and covers of its own. Then something rather curious occurred, one of those trifles which serve to make a publisher's life an exciting, if not a happy, one. When the 'gentle reader' (bless his or her warm and irrational heart!) could no longer buy 'A Cathedral Courtship,' a new desire for it sprang into being, and when the demands became sufficiently ardent and numerous, it was decided to republish the story, with illustrations by Mr. Charles E. Brock, an artist who can be relied upon to put new energy into a live tale or resuscitate a dead one.

At this point the author, having presumably grown in knowledge of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, was asked to revise the text, and being confronted with the printed page, was overcome by the temptation to add now and then a sentence, line, or paragraph, while the charming shade of Miss Kitty Schuyler perched on every exclamation point, begging permission to say a trifle, just a trifle, more.

'You might allow me to explain myself just there,' she coaxed; 'and if you have told them all I was supposed to be thinking in Winchester or Salisbury or Oxford, why not tell them what I thought in Bath or Peterborough or Ely? It was awfully interesting!'

Table of contents (by pages)

• 1: A Cathedral Courtship by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
• 2: Aunt Celia says it is not a Church
• 3: But Roderick Abbott is not in Aunt Celia's itinerary
• 4: 'It would 'ardly be a substitute for gooseberry tart
• 5: She had turned with the verger
• 6: Who answers to the name of 'Aunt Celia
• 7: I wanted so much to stop at the Highflyer Inn in Lark Lane
• 8: I don't know how to approach Aunt Celia
• 9: Neither of us can understand Bradshaw
• 10: I was disconcerted at being found in a dramshop alone
• 11: Underlined You alone have brought me to Bath
• 12: ' as our dear Hawthorne calls it
• 13: 'I never knew a Copley who was not respectable
• 14: If I were an ammonite I know I should bite Aunt Celia
• 15: Copley has accomplished something
• 16: I'm getting to adore Aunt Celia
• 17: Copley thinks I have been feeing the vergers too liberally
• 18: Copley to be her own architect
• 19: Benedict and me into 'The Little Snug
• 20: Miss Schuyler observed in the voice
• 21: Copley looked about in every direction
• 22: Copley can secure apartments for us
• 23: 'I can't help being frightened
• 24: Winchester and Salisbury stand out superbly in my memory
• 25: 'She is what is always and everywhere rare a real humorist
• 26: And other text illustrations by Herbert Cole
• 27: The rhymes are lively and have the proper jingle