And thus it came to pass, that John Browdie declared, in the parlour
after supper, to wit, and twenty minutes before eleven o'clock p.m.,
that he had never been so happy in all his days.
Nor was Mrs Browdie much behind her husband in this respect, for that
young matron, whose rustic beauty contrasted very prettily with the
more delicate loveliness of Kate, and without suffering by the contrast
either, for each served as it were to set off and decorate the other,
could not sufficiently admire the gentle and winning manners of the
young lady, or the engaging affability of the elder one. Then Kate had
the art of turning the conversation to subjects upon which the country
girl, bashful at first in strange company, could feel herself at
home; and if Mrs Nickleby was not quite so felicitous at times in the
selection of topics of discourse, or if she did seem, as Mrs Browdie
expressed it, 'rather high in her notions,' still nothing could be
kinder, and that she took considerable interest in the young couple was
manifest from the very long lectures on housewifery with which she
was so obliging as to entertain Mrs Browdie's private ear, which
were illustrated by various references to the domestic economy of the
cottage, in which (those duties falling exclusively upon Kate) the good
lady had about as much share, either in theory or practice, as any one
of the statues of the Twelve Apostles which embellish the exterior of St
Paul's Cathedral.
Pages:
1028
1029
1030
1031
1032
1033
1034
1035
1036
1037
1038
1039
1040
1041
1042
1043
1044
1045
1046
1047
1048
1049
1050
1051
1052