'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.