Her mother thought
it better to back her up, so the two dangerous ones were packed off
then and there on visits to friends some way off, and those alone
allowed to remain at home whose loyalty could be depended upon. The
brothers did not even suspect what was going on and believed their
father's getting assistance was because he really wanted it.
The sisters who remained at home kept their words and gave Christina
all the help they could, for over and above their sense of fair play
they reflected that the sooner Theobald was landed, the sooner another
deacon might be sent for who might be won by themselves. So quickly
was all managed that the two unreliable sisters were actually out of
the house before Theobald's next visit- which was on the Sunday
following his first.
This time Theobald felt quite at home in the house of his new
friends- for so Mrs. Allaby insisted that he should call them. She
took, she said, such a motherly interest in young men, especially in
clergymen. Theobald believed every word she said, as he had believed
his father and all his elders from his youth up. Christina sat next
him at dinner and played her cards no less judiciously than she had
played them in her sister's bedroom.
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