The Argosy — page 25: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

12 The Village Blacksmith. the breakfast-table and going to the window to see what had alarmed her father. , There on the lawn stood Mr. Ryot-Tempest gazing down the drive, apparently too terrified to move. And there advancing towards him was Mrs. Canter in her weeds, wiping her face with one hand, for it was a very hot August morning, and with the other leading a large and beautiful mastiff. Mrs. Canter alone would have struck terror into the Rector’s mind; and he would have fled to his study had she been unaccompanied’; but Mrs. Canter accompanied by a huge mastiff simply paralysed him, for he had a horror of dogs. He was therefore considerably relieved when Vera came flying past him to rush into Norah’s arms, and his wife ran her arm through his and led him towards the house. CHAPTER XxX. MRS. CANTER’S SYSTEM OF THOUGHT. To explain the appearance of Mrs. Canter and the mastiff described in the last chapter we must go back a few weeks in our chronicle. ) It was ironing-day ; that is to say it was the fifth day in the week ; the majority of people call it Thursday ; Mrs. Canter did not, but then we know her opinion of the majority of her countrymen. She was engaged in the work to which ironing-day was consecrated. It was pleasanter work in winter than on a hot day in August, but then Mrs. Canter had a soul above such physical conditions as heat and cold where her art was concerned ; so she was pursuing the ironing branch of her profession this scorching August Thursday with pro- found equanimity. If her cheeks burnt and the perspiration stood on her forehead, these were purely weaknesses of the flesh over which she had no control. ‘The main point is that her mind was calm and collected, her judgment cool and philosophical. For Mrs. Canter was a philosopher in her way. That way was narrow, and her system of thought was certainly restricted; but then it was original, and an original thinker deserves attention. Modern philosophers look with scorn on the geocentric theory, but the most ardent advocates of that theory would have looked with scorn on Mrs. Canter’s system of thought had she lived in Ptolemaic times. That system can only be described by coining a word: ¢tudbcentrec would accurately describe her school; a school with at present very few disciples, for not the earth, let alone the sun, but her washing-tub, was the centre of her philosophy. Mrs. Canter, however, was no proselytiser. ‘The heliocentric school could follow their very broad way, which leads to destruction; the geocentric school could follow their narrower path ; Mrs. Canter would follow hers: if she made no converts, the rest of the world were the losers. Her tub remained CORNICE OOKS,COM