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Part 5: Middling

Sat, 01/29/2022 - 6:00am
"Embroidery for Fire Screen" (early 1800s, Cleveland Museum of Art)

Trifles Light as Air

A collection of one-shots based on Northanger Abbey: drabbles, flash fiction, missing scenes, and more. Title from Shakespeare's Othello, as quoted by Jane Austen in Chapter One. Now available as an eBook via Draft2Digital.

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Though Woodston was ostensibly his home, the parsonage remained bare and the parish often left to his curate.

At his most cynical, Henry took Christ's description of "nowhere to lay his head" personally. Absurd, considering the many rooms in his father's house; but though Woodston was ostensibly his home, the parsonage remained bare and the parish often left to his curate.

Henry preached regularly—monthly—certainly more than many. The longer he remained the more he wished to; visits to his sister inevitably lengthened to relieve her solitude.

His was an unsettled existence, not unhappy or poor: more anticipatory than repressive. Any maudlin sensibility was truly laughable.

After all, paternal authority could compel far worse than a trip to Bath.

Quote from Matthew Chapter 8: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head."