Ransom was deeply interested, and as, with Verena, he
followed Miss Catching about (she was so good as to show them the
establishment in all its ramifications), he considered with attention
the young lady's fair ringlets and refined, anxious expression, saying
to himself that this was in the highest degree a New England type.
Verena found an opportunity to mention to him that she was wrapped up in
the cause, and there was a moment during which he was afraid that his
companion would expose him to her as one of its traducers; but there was
that in Miss Catching's manner (and in the influence of the lofty halls)
which deprecated loud pleasantry, and seemed to say, moreover, that if
she were treated to such a revelation she should not know under what
letter to range it.
"Now there is one place where perhaps it would be indelicate to take a
Mississippian," Verena said, after this episode. "I mean the great place
that towers above the others--that big building with the beautiful
pinnacles, which you see from every point." But Basil Ransom had heard
of the great Memorial Hall; he knew what memories it enshrined, and the
worst that he should have to suffer there; and the ornate, overtopping
structure, which was the finest piece of architecture he had ever seen,
had moreover solicited his enlarged curiosity for the last half-hour. He
thought there was rather too much brick about it, but it was buttressed,
cloistered, turreted, dedicated, superscribed, as he had never seen
anything; though it didn't look old, it looked significant; it covered a
large area, and it sprang majestic into the winter air.
Pages:
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37