coach, she almost danced along the street.'Now, papa!' said she, 'I'm going to have you all to myself for a whole week.You must be very obedient.' 'Don't be tyrannical, then.You are walking me out of breath, and we are cutting Mrs Goodenough, in our hurry.' So they crossed over the street to speak to Mrs Goodenough.'We've just been seeing my wife and her daughter off to London.Mrs Gibson has gone up for a week!' 'Deary, deary, to London, and only for a week! Why, I can remember its being a three days' journey! It will be very lonesome for you, Miss Molly, without your young companion!' 'Yes!' said Molly, suddenly feeling as if she ought to have taken this view of the case.'I shall miss Cynthia very much.' 'And you, Mr Gibson; why, it will be like being a widower over again! You must come and drink tea with me some evening.We must try and cheer you up a bit amongst us.Shall it be Tuesday?' In spite of the sharp pinch which Molly gave to his arm, Mr Gibson accepted the invitation, much to the gratification of the old lady.'Papa, how could you go and waste one of our evenings.We have but six in all, and now but five; and I had so reckoned on our doing all sorts of things together.' 'What sort of things?' 'Oh, I don't know: everything that is unrefined and ungenteel,' added she, slyly looking up into her father's face.His eyes twinkled, but the rest of his face was perfectly grave.'I'm not going to be corrupted.With toil and labour I have reached a very fair height of refinement.I won't be pulled down again.' 'Yes, you will, papa.We'll have bread and cheese for lunch this very day.
And you shall wear your slippers in the drawing-room every evening you'll stay quietly at home; and oh, papa, don't you think I could ride Nora Creina.
I've been looking out the old grey skirt, and I think I could make myself tidy.' 'Where is the side-saddle to come from?' 'To be sure the old one won't fit that great Irish mare.But I'm not particular, papa.I think I could manage somehow.' 'Thank you.But I'm not quite going to return into barbarism.It may he a depraved taste, but I should like to see my daughter properly mounted.' 'Think of riding together down the lanes - why, the dog-roses must be all out in flower, and the honeysuckles, and the hay - how I should like to see Merriman's farm again! Papa, do let me have one ride with you! Please do.I am sure we can manage it somehow.' And 'somehow' it was managed.'Somehow' all Molly's wishes came to pass;there was only one little drawback to this week of holiday and happy intercourse with her father.Everybody would ask them out to tea.They were quite like bride and bridegroom; for the fact was, that the late dinners which Mrs Gibson had introduced into her own house, were a great inconvenience in the calculations of the small tea-drinkings at Hollingford.How ask people to tea at six, who dined at that hour? How, when they refused cake and sandwiches at half-past eight, how induce other people who were really hungry to commit a vulgarity before those calm and scornful eyes? So there had been a great lull of invitations for the Gibsons to Hollingford tea-parties.
Mrs Gibson, whose object was to squeeze herself into 'county society,'
had taken this being left out of the smaller festivities with great equanimity;but Molly missed the kind homeliness of the parties to which she had gone from time to time as long as she could remember; and though, as each three-cornered note was brought in, she grumbled a little over the loss of another charming tête-à-tête with her father, she really was glad to go again in the old way among old friends.Miss Browning and Miss Phoebe were especially compassionate towards her in her loneliness.If they had had their will she would have dined there every day; and she had to call upon them very frequently in order to prevent their being hurt at her declining the dinners.Mrs Gibson wrote twice during her week's absence to her husband.
That piece of news was quite satisfactory to the Miss Brownings, who had of late months held themselves a great deal aloof from a house where they chose to suppose that their presence was not wanted.In their winter evenings they had often talked over Mr Gibson's household, and having little besides conjectures to go upon, they found the subject interminable, as they could vary the possibilities every day.One of their wonders was how Mr and Mrs Gibson really got on together; another was whether Mrs Gibson was extravagant or not.Now two letters during the week of her absence showed what was in those days considered a very proper amount of conjugal affection.Yet not too much - at elevenpence halfpenny postage.A third letter would have been extravagant.Sister looked to sister with an approving nod as Molly named the second letter, which arrived in Hollingford the very day before Mrs Gibson was to return.They had settled between themselves that two letters would show the right amount of good feeling and proper understanding in the Gibson family: more would have been extravagant; only one would have been a mere matter of duty.There had been rather a question between Miss Browning and Miss Phoebe as to which person the second letter (supposing it came) was to be addressed.It would be very conjugal to write twice to Mr Gibson; and yet it would be very pretty if Molly came in for her share.'You've had another letter, you say, my dear,' asked Miss Browning, 'Idaresay Mrs Gibson has written to you this time?' 'It is a large sheet, and Cynthia has written on one half to me, and all the rest is to papa.' 'A very nice arrangement, I'm sure.And what does Cynthia say? Is she enjoying herself?' 'Oh, yes, I think so.They have had a dinner-party, and one night when mamma was at Lady Cumnor's, Cynthia went to the play with her cousins.' 'Upon my word! and all in one week? I do call that dissipation.Why, Thursday would be taken up with the journey, and Friday with resting, and Sunday is Sunday all the world over; and they must have written on Tuesday.Well!