'Well, mother,' asked Mr. Thornton that night, 'who have accepted

your invitations for the twenty-first?' 'Fanny, where are the notes? The Slicksons accept, Collingbrooks

accept, Stephenses accept, Browns decline. Hales--father and

daughter come,--mother too great an invalid--Macphersons come,

and Mr. Horsfall, and Mr. Young. I was thinking of asking the

Porters, as the Browns can't come.' 'Very good. Do you know, I'm really afraid Mrs. Hale is very far

from well, from what Dr. Donaldson says.' 'It's strange of them to accept a dinner-invitation if she's very

ill,' said Fanny.

'I didn't say very ill,' said her brother, rather sharply. 'I

only said very far from well. They may not know it either.' And

then he suddenly remembered that, from what Dr. Donaldson had

told him, Margaret, at any rate, must be aware of the exact state

of the case.

'Very probably they are quite aware of what you said yesterday,

John--of the great advantage it would be to them--to Mr. Hale, I

mean, to be introduced to such people as the Stephenses and the

Collingbrooks.' 'I'm sure that motive would not influence them. No! I think I

understand how it is.' 'John!' said Fanny, laughing in her little, weak, nervous way.

'How you profess to understand these Hales, and how you never

will allow that we can know anything about them. Are they really

so very different to most people one meets with?' She did not mean to vex him; but if she had intended it, she

could not have done it more thoroughly. He chafed in silence,

however, not deigning to reply to her question.

'They do not seem to me out of the common way,' said Mrs.

Thornton. 'He appears a worthy kind of man enough; rather too

simple for trade--so it's perhaps as well he should have been a

clergyman first, and now a teacher. She's a bit of a fine lady,

with her invalidism; and as for the girl--she's the only one who

puzzles me when I think about her,--which I don't often do. She

seems to have a great notion of giving herself airs; and I can't

make out why. I could almost fancy she thinks herself too good

for her company at times. And yet they're not rich, from all I

can hear they never have been.' 'And she's not accomplished, mamma. She can't play.' 'Go on, Fanny. What else does she want to bring her up to your

standard?' 'Nay! John,' said his mother, 'that speech of Fanny's did no

harm. I myself heard Miss Hale say she could not play. If you

would let us alone, we could perhaps like her, and see her

merits.' 'I'm sure I never could!' murmured Fanny, protected by her

mother. Mr. Thornton heard, but did not care to reply. He was

walking up and down the dining-room, wishing that his mother

would order candles, and allow him to set to work at either

reading or writing, and so put a stop to the conversation. But he

never thought of interfering in any of the small domestic

regulations that Mrs. Thornton observed, in habitual remembrance

of her old economies.




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