He also narrated what Coristine had
told him of his hero's attitude towards the catechism, as accounting for
his present position. The old lady relented in her judgment of the
younger Pilgrim, thought that Saul, perhaps, was too severe, and that
the catechism could stand revision. Wilkinson agreed, and, the ice being
completely broken between them, they also proceeded to view the scenery
in a poetic light, or rather in two, the dame's a Cowperish, and the
dominie's a Wordsworthian reflection. Suddenly, the latter saw the
father of Tryphena and Tryphosa open a gate, and turn into a side road,
along which the lawyer seemed not quite disposed to accompany him. The
elder smoker, therefore, came back to the gate, and waited for Wilkinson
and the old lady to come forward.
"Mother!" said the old man, as the pair came up to the halting place,
"you've got a soft blarneying Lutherian tongue in your head--"
"Henry Cooke," she replied sharply, "how often must I tell you that
Lutherian is wrong, and that I am not a Lutheran, and have ceased even
to be a United Brother since I cast in my lot with you; moreover, it is
not pleasant for an old woman like me to be accused of blarneying, as if
I were a rough Irishman with a grin on his broad face.
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