If people who are in
a difficulty will only do the first little reasonable thing which they
can clearly recognise as reasonable, they will always find the next
step more easy both to see and take. What, then, thought Theobald, was
here at this moment the first and most obvious matter to be
considered, and what would be an equitable view of his and Christina's
relative positions in respect to it? Clearly their first dinner was
their first joint entry into the duties and pleasures of married life.
No less clearly it was Christina's duty to order it, and his own to
eat it and pay for it.
The arguments leading to this conclusion, and the conclusion itself,
flashed upon Theobald about three and a half miles after he had left
Crampsford on the road to Newmarket. He had breakfasted early, but his
usual appetite had failed him. They had left the vicarage at noon
without staying for the wedding breakfast. Theobald liked an early
dinner; it dawned upon him that he was beginning to be hungry; from
this to the conclusion stated in the preceding paragraph the steps had
been easy. After a few minutes' further reflection he broached the
matter to his bride, and thus the ice was broken.
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