She gave evening parties once a
fortnight at which prayer was part of the entertainment. She was not
only spiritually minded, but, as enthusiastic Mrs. Allaby used to
exclaim, she was a thorough woman of the world at the same time and
had such a fund of strong masculine good sense. She too had daughters,
but, as she used to say to Mrs. Allaby, she had been less fortunate
than Mrs. Allaby herself, for one by one they had married and left
her, so that her old age would have been desolate indeed if her
Professor had not been spared to her.
Mrs. Cowey, of course, knew the run of all the bachelor clergy in
the University, and was the very person to assist Mrs. Allaby in
finding an eligible assistant for her husband, so this last named lady
drove over one morning in the November of 1825, by arrangement, to
take an early dinner with Mrs. Cowey and spend the afternoon. After
dinner the two ladies retired together, and the business of the day
began. How they fenced, how they saw through one another, with what
loyalty they pretended not to see through one another, with what
gentle dalliance they prolonged the conversation discussing the
spiritual fitness of this or that deacon, and the other pros and
cons connected with him after his spiritual fitness had been
disposed of, all this must be left to the imagination of the reader.
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