St Paul’s Cathedral is a stop on Sunday Small’s first sightseeing tour of London, and its steps become the setting for a small but lasting kindness. The visit joins the excitement of seeing the capital with Sunday’s continuing grief for Daisy Branning: the flowers she receives are precious not only as a first gift, but also as something she hopes to carry home to her friend’s grave.

The Cathedral on Sunday’s London Tour

The morning after helping Mrs Spooner dress, Sunday set out with Mrs Spooner and Jacob in a horse-drawn carriage. She intended to make the most of the trip, aware that she might never return to London. St Paul’s Cathedral entered her experience as one stop on this sightseeing tour; the account locates the important encounter on its steps rather than describing the cathedral’s architecture or interior.

Pigeons, Violets, and a First Gift

An old woman on the cathedral steps was selling birdseed, and Jacob bought some so Sunday could feed the pigeons gathered at their feet. Nearby, another woman sold posies of violets. Jacob bought one for Mrs Spooner and one for Sunday, delighting them both. Sunday had never been given flowers before, and wished that her bunch could last forever.

A London Memory Tied to Daisy

The flowers also connected the outing to Sunday’s absence and mourning. She planned to press a couple of violets between the pages of a book and place them on Daisy’s grave when she returned home. Sunday kept up her usual cheerful manner, but Jacob understood how deeply she missed her friend. The following day’s boat trip on the River Thames, which took them to the Tower of London, was another highlight of the visit; thinking of the young queens imprisoned there made Sunday sad. Against this wider mixture of pleasure and sorrow, the scene at St Paul’s makes the first flowers a compact expression of Sunday’s capacity to cherish a gift while remembering someone she has lost.