The state of expectation into which these calls threw Mrs Gibson rather diminished Mr Gibson's domestic comfort.It was awkward to be carrying hot, savoury-smelling dishes from the kitchen to the dining-room at the very time when high-born ladies, with noses of aristocratic refinement, might be calling.Still more awkward was the accident which happened in consequence of clumsy Betty's haste to open the front door to a lofty footman's ran-tan, which caused her to set down the basket containing the dirty plates right in his mistress's way, as she stepped gingerly through the comparative darkness of the hall; and then the young men, leaving the dining-room quietly enough, but bursting with long-repressed giggle, or no longer restraining their tendency to practical joking, no matter who might be in the passage when they made their exit.The remedy proposed by Mrs Gibson for all these distressing grievances was a late dinner.The luncheon for the young men, as she observed to her husband, might be sent into the surgery.A few elegant cold trifles for herself and Molly would not scent the house, and she would always take care to have some little dainty ready for him.He acceded, but unwillingly, for it was an innovation on the habits of a lifetime, and he felt as if he should never be able to arrange his rounds aright with this newfangled notion of a six o'clock dinner.'Don't get any dainties for me, my dear; bread and cheese is the chief of my diet, like it was that of the old woman's." 'I know nothing of your old woman,' replied his wife; 'but really I cannot allow cheese to come beyond the kitchen.' 'Then I'll eat it there,' said he.'It's close to the stable-yard, and if I come in in a hurry I can get it in a moment.' 'Really, Mr Gibson, it is astonishing to compare your appearance and manners with your tastes.You look such a gentleman, as dear Lady Cumnor used to say.' Then the cook left; also an old servant, though not so old a one as Betty.
The cook did not like the trouble of late dinners; and, being a Methodist, she objected on religious grounds to trying any of Mrs Gibson's new receipts for French dishes.It was not scriptural, she said.There was a deal of mention of food in the Bible; but it was of sheep ready dressed, which meant mutton, and of wine, and of bread, and milk, and figs and raisins, of fatted calves, a good well-browned fillet of veal, and such like; but it had always gone against her conscience to cook swine-flesh and make raised pork-pies, and now if she was to be set to cook heathen dishes after the fashion of the Papists, she'd sooner give it all up together.So the cook followed in Betty's track, and Mr Gibson had to satisfy his healthy English appetite on badly made omelettes, rissoles, vol-au-vents, croquets , and timbales; never being exactly sure what he was eating.He had made up his mind before his marriage to yield in trifles, and be firm in greater things.But the differences of opinion about trifles arose every day, and were perhaps more annoying than if they had related to things of more consequence.Molly knew her father's looks as well as she knew her alphabet; his wife did not; and being an unperceptive person, except when her own interests were dependent upon another person's humour, never found out how he was worried by all the small daily concessions which he made to her will or her whims.He never allowed himself to put any regret into shape, even in his own mind; he repeatedly reminded himself of his wife's good qualities, and comforted himself by thinking they should work together better as time rolled on; but he was very angry at a bachelor great-uncle of Mr Coxe's, who, after taking no notice of his red-headed nephew for years, suddenly sent for him, after the old man had partially recovered from a serious attack of illness, and appointed him his heir, on condition that his great-nephew remained with him during the remainder of his life.This had happened almost directly after Mr and Mrs Gibson's return from their wedding journey, and once or twice since that time Mr Gibson had found himself wondering why the deuce old Benson could not have made up his mind sooner, and so have rid his house of the unwelcome presence of the young lover.To do Mr Coxe justice, in the very last conversation he had as a pupil with Mr Gibson he had said, with hesitating awkwardness, that perhaps the new circumstances in which he should be placed might make some difference with regard to Mr Gibson's opinion on - 'Not at all,' said Mr Gibson, quickly.'You are both of you too young to know your own minds; and if my daughter was silly enough to be in love, she should never have to calculate her happiness on the chances of an old man's death.I dare say he'll disinherit you after all.He may do, and then you'd be worse off than ever.No! go away, and forget all this nonsense;and when you've done, come back and see us!' So Mr Coxe went away, with an oath of unalterable faithfulness in his heart;and Mr Gibson had unwillingly to fulfil an old promise made to a gentleman farmer in the neighbourhood a year or two before, and to take the second son of Mr Browne in young Coxe's place.He was to be the last of the race of pupils, and as he was rather more than a year younger than Molly, Mr Gibson trusted that there would be no repetition of the Coxe romance.
