During much of this time Mr. Preston had been at Ashcombe; for Lord
Cumnor had not been able to find an agent whom he liked to replace
Mr. Preston; and while the inferior situation remained vacant Mr.
Preston had undertaken to do the duties of both. Mrs. Goodenough had
had a serious illness; and the little society at Hollingford did not
care to meet while one of their habitual set was scarcely out of
danger. So there had been very little visiting; and though Miss
Browning said that the absence of the temptations of society was very
agreeable to cultivated minds, after the dissipations of the previous
autumn, when there were parties every week to welcome Mr. Preston,
yet Miss Phoebe let out in confidence that she and her sister had
fallen into the habit of going to bed at nine o'clock, for they found
cribbage night after night, from five o'clock till ten, rather too
much of a good thing. To tell the truth, that winter, if peaceful,
was monotonous in Hollingford; and the whole circle of gentility
there was delighted to be stirred up in March by the intelligence
that Mr. Kirkpatrick, the newly-made Q.C., was coming on a visit for
a couple of days to his sister-in-law, Mrs. Gibson. Mrs. Goodenough's
room was the very centre of gossip; gossip had been her daily bread
through her life, gossip was meat and wine to her now.
"Dear-ah-me!" said the old lady, rousing herself so as to sit upright
in her easy-chair, and propping herself with her hands on the arms;
"who would ha' thought she'd such grand relations! Why, Mr. Ashton
told me once that a Queen's counsel was as like to be a judge as a
kitten is like to be a cat. And to think of her being as good as
a sister to a judge! I saw one oncst; and I know I thought as I
shouldn't wish for a better winter-cloak than his old robes would
make me, if I could only find out where I could get 'em second-hand.
And I know she'd her silk gowns turned and dyed and cleaned, and, for
aught I know, turned again, while she lived at Ashcombe. Keeping a
school, too, and so near akin to this Queen's counsel all the time!
Well, to be sure, it wasn't much of a school--only ten young ladies
at the best o' times; so perhaps he never heard of it."
"I've been wondering what they'll give him to dinner," said Miss
Browning. "It is an unlucky time for visitors; no game to be had,
and lamb so late this year, and chicken hardly to be had for love or
money."