Then
she happily reflected that if he asked for them, he was not in the least
likely to read them. "I hope Miss Mallory is not really an unbeliever."
"Mother! Of course, what that poker in a wide-awake did was to say
something uncivil about her father, and she wasn't going to stand that.
Quite right, too."
"She did come to church on Christmas Day," said Mrs. Roughsedge,
reflecting. "But, then, a great many people do that who don't believe
anything. Anyway, she has always been quite charming to your father and
me. And I think, besides, the Vicar might have been satisfied with your
father's opinion--_he_ made no complaint about the books. Oh, now the
Miss Bertrams are going to stop us! They'll of course know all
about it!"
If Captain Roughsedge growled ugly words into his mustache, his mother
was able to pretend not to hear them, in the gentle excitement of
shaking hands with the Miss Bertrams. These middle-aged ladies, the
daughters of a deceased doctor from the neighboring county town of
Dunscombe, were, if possible, more plainly dressed than usual, and their
manners more forbidding.
"You will have heard of this disagreeable incident which has occurred,"
said Miss Maria to Mrs.
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