CHAPTER LXXXIII
JOEY and Charlotte were in the room. Joey was now ordained, and
was curate to Theobald. He and Ernest had never been sympathetic,
and Ernest saw at a glance that there was no chance of a rapprochement
between them. He was a little startled at seeing Joey dressed as a
clergyman, and looking so like what he had looked himself a few
years earlier, for there was a good deal of family likeness between
the pair; but Joey's face was cold and was illumined with no spark
of Bohemianism; he was going to do as other clergymen did, neither
better nor worse. He greeted Ernest rather de haut en has, that is
to say he began by trying to do so, but the affair tailed off
unsatisfactorily.
His sister presented her cheek to him to be kissed. How he hated it;
he had been dreading it for the last three hours. She, too, was
distant and reproachful in her manner, as such a superior person was
sure to be. She had a grievance against him inasmuch as she was
still unmarried. She laid the blame this at Ernest's door; it was
his misconduct, she maintained in secret, which had prevented young
men from making offers to her, and she ran him up a heavy bill for
consequential damages.
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