It was always Lady Cumnor's habit to snub those she loved best. Her
husband was perpetually snubbed by her, yet she missed him now that
he was later than usual, and professed not to want her tea; but they
all knew that it was only because he was not there to hand it to her,
and be found fault with for his invariable stupidity in forgetting
that she liked to put sugar in before she took any cream. At length
he burst in:--
"I beg your pardon, my lady,--I'm later than I should have been,
I know. Why! haven't you had your tea yet?" he exclaimed, bustling
about to get the cup for his wife.
"You know I never take cream before I've sweetened it," said she,
with even more emphasis on the "never" than usual.
"Oh, dear! What a simpleton I am! I think I might have remembered it
by this time. You see I met old Sheepshanks, and that's the reason of
it."
"Of your handing me the cream before the sugar?" asked his wife. It
was one of her grim jokes.
"No, no! ha, ha! You're better this evening, I think, my dear. But,
as I was saying, Sheepshanks is such an eternal talker, there's no
getting away from him, and I had no idea it was so late!"
"Well, I think the least you can do is to tell us something of Mr.
Sheepshanks' conversation now you have torn yourself away from him."
"Conversation! did I call it conversation? I don't think I said much.
I listened. He really has always a great deal to say. More than
Preston, for instance. And, by the way, he was telling me something
about Preston;--old Sheepshanks thinks he'll be married before
long,--he says there's a great deal of gossip going on about him
and Gibson's daughter. They've been caught meeting in the park, and
corresponding, and all that kind of thing that is likely to end in a
marriage."
"I shall be very sorry," said Lady Harriet. "I always liked that
girl; and I can't bear papa's model land-agent."
"I daresay it's not true," said Lady Cumnor, in a very audible aside
to Lady Harriet. "Papa picks up stories one day to contradict them
the next."
"Ah, but this did sound like truth. Sheepshanks said all the old
ladies in the town had got hold of it, and were making a great
scandal out of it."
"I don't think it does sound quite a nice story. I wonder what Clare
could be doing to allow such goings on," said Lady Cuxhaven.
"I think it is much more likely that Clare's own daughter--that
pretty pawky Miss Kirkpatrick--is the real heroine of this story,"
said Lady Harriet. "She always looks like a heroine of genteel
comedy; and those young ladies were capable of a good deal of
innocent intriguing, if I remember rightly. Now little Molly Gibson
has a certain _gaucherie_ about her which would disqualify her at
once from any clandestine proceedings. Besides, 'clandestine!' why,
the child is truth itself. Papa, are you sure Mr. Sheepshanks said it
was Miss Gibson that was exciting Hollingford scandal? Wasn't it Miss
Kirkpatrick? The notion of her and Mr. Preston making a match of it
doesn't sound so incongruous; but if it's my little friend Molly,
I'll go to church and forbid the banns."