Bishop
would suffice to throw her into one of her "spells," a condition of
alarming and possibly genuine collapse. "To drive mother into a
spell" was an expression of the worst possible domestic crime. It
accused the perpetrator--through Mrs. Bishop--of forgetting the
state of affairs, of ingratitude for care and affection, of common
inhumanity, and of impiety in rendering impossible of performance
the multifarious church duties Mrs. Bishop had invented and assumed
as so many particularly shining virtues. Orde soon discovered that
Carroll went out in society very little for the simple reason that
she could never give an unqualified acceptance to an invitation. At
the last moment, when she had donned her street wraps and the
carriage was at the door, she was liable to be called back, either
to assist at some religious function, which, by its sacred
character, was supposed to have precedence over everything, or to
attend a nervous crisis, brought on by some member of the household,
or by mere untoward circumstances. The girl always acquiesced most
sweetly in these recurrent disappointments. And the very fact that
she accepted few invitations gave Orde many more chances to see her,
in spite of Mrs.
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