With dinner his shyness wore off. He was by no means plain, his
academic prestige was very fair. There was nothing about him to lay
hold of as unconventional or ridiculous; the impression he created
upon the young ladies was quite as favourable as that which they had
created upon himself, for they knew not much more about men than he
about women.
As soon as he was gone, the harmony of the establishment was
broken by a storm which arose upon the question which of them it
should be who should become Mrs. Pontifex. "My dears," said their
father, when he saw that they did not seem likely to settle the matter
among themselves, "wait till to-morrow, and then play at cards for
him." Having said which he retired to his study, where he took a
nightly glass of whisky and a pipe of tobacco.
CHAPTER XI
THE next morning saw Theobald in his rooms coaching a pupil, and the
Miss Allabys in the eldest Miss Allaby's bedroom playing at cards,
with Theobald for the stakes.
The winner was Christina, the second unmarried daughter, then just
twenty-seven years old and therefore four years older than Theobald.
The younger sisters complained that it was throwing a husband away
to let Christina try and catch him, for she was so much older that she
had no chance; but Christina showed fight in a way not usual with her,
for she was by nature yielding and good tempered.
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