How had we better set about it?"
"I shall ask her straight what she means."
"How shall we go on then?"
"How shall we go on then? What! won't YOU have a word to put in
about her marrying a fellow like that, your own servant with such a
father? And how are they to live, pray? Am I to have him up here
to tea with us, and is Phoebe to answer the front door when they
knock, and is she to wait upon him, HIM who always goes down the
area steps to the kitchen? I do not believe Phoebe would stop a
month, for with all her faults she does like a respectable family.
And then, if they go to church, are they to have our pew, and is
Mrs. Colston to call on me and say, 'How is Catharine, and how is
your SON-IN-LAW?' And then--oh dear, oh dear!--is his father to
come here too, and is Catharine to bring him, and is he to be at the
wedding breakfast? And perhaps Mrs. Colston will inquire after him
too. But there, I shall not survive THAT! Oh! Catharine,
Catharine!"
Mrs. Furze dropped on the chair opposite the looking-glass, for she
was arranging her back hair while this monologue was proceeding,
although the process was interrupted here and there when her
emotions got the better of her. Her hair fell into confusion again,
and it seemed as if she would again be upset even at that early
hour. Her husband gave her a smelling-bottle, and she slowly
recommenced her toilette.
"Would it not," he said, "be as well to try and soften her a bit,
and remind her of her duty to her parents?"
"You might finish up with that, but I don't believe she'd care; and
what are we to do if she owns it all and sticks out? That's what I
want to know.
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