Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER XV Etty's Question. Just before the arrival of Julian's dispiriting letter, I and Etty had actually entertained the thought of visiting London. Indeed we had almost determined to do so. I had never been in the capital of Great Britain; and Etty had never seen a larger town than that which was overshadowed by the Abbey woods. Several ladies in Laughton resembled myself in never having seen London; and not a few Laughton girls of Etty's age were in the same degree with her ignorant of the delights and discomforts of travelling. The cathedral town, forty miles distant, whither once in three years a musical festival, with all the best London artists for performers, attracted all the wealthier inhabitants of the surrounding provinces, was the metropolis, with which the Laughton 'ladies of the world' boasted a familiar acquaintance. With a desire, natural to our years, of seeing the world beyond the confines of our own narrow home,and with a not reprehensible ambition to be somewhat in advance of our more backward neighbours, I and my sister had meditated a visit to London. The trip, I felt, would do me good; and Etty's health required change of scene. Of course we gained a kind of moral countenance to our project by arguing that the experience and prestige we should gain by the excursion, would better qualify us to be efficient instructors of the young, and would confer distinction on our school. Of course we took Mr. and Mrs. Gurley into our confidence; and they both warmly encouraged us to carry out our daring proposition. Mrs. Gurley had a cousin, married to a tradesman in Oxford Street, who would be happy either to take us into her house as lodgers (if she had the requisite accommodation), or to find us a respectable domicile, if an increasing family rendered her u... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.