Effective C++ 3. Use const whenever posible

char operator[] (std::size_t position) {
    return text[position];
}

tb[0] = ‘x’;
it is never legal to modify the return value of a function that return a built-in type.

mutable

class CTextBlock {
public:
    ...
    std::size_t length() const;
    private:
    char *pText;
    mutable std::size_t textLength;
    mutable bool lengthIsValid;
};
std::size_t CTextBlock::length() const {
    if (!lenghtIsValid) {
        textLength = std::strlen(pText);
        lengthIsValid = true;
    }
    return textLength;
}

class TextBlock {
public:
    ...
    const char& operator[] (std::size_t position) const {
        ...
        return text[position];
    }
    char& operator[] (std::size_t position) const {
        return
            const_cast<char&>(static_cast<const TextBlock&>(*this)[positon]);
    }
};