The Last Days of Mary Masters
The triumph of Mary Masters was something more than
a nine days’ wonder to the people of Dillsborough.
They had all known Larry Twentyman’s intentions
and aspirations, and had generally condemned the young
lady’s obduracy, thinking, and not being slow
to say, that she would live to repent her perversity.
Runciman who had a thoroughly warm-hearted friendship
for both the attorney and Larry had sometimes been
very severe on Mary. “She wants a touch
of hardship,” he would say, “to bring
her to. If Larry would just give her a cold shoulder
for six months, she’d be ready to jump into his
arms.” And Dr. Nupper had been heard to
remark that she might go farther and fare worse.
“If it were my girl I’d let her know all
about it,” Ribbs the butcher had said in the
bosom of his own family. When it was found that
Mr. Surtees the curate was not to be the fortunate
man, the matter was more inexplicable than ever.
Had it then been declared that the owner of Hoppet
Hall had proposed to her, all these tongues would
have been silenced, and the refusal even of Larry
Twentyman would have been justified. But what
was to be said and what was to be thought when it
was known that she was to be the mistress of Bragton?
For a day or two the prosperity of the attorney was
hardly to be endured by his neighbours. When it
was first known that the stewardship of the property
was to go back into his hands, his rise in the world
was for a time slightly prejudicial to his popularity;
but this greater stroke of luck, this latter promotion
which would place him so much higher in Dillsborough
than even his father or his grandfather had ever been,
was a great trial of friendship.
Mrs. Masters felt it all very keenly. All possibility
for reproach against either her husband or her step-daughter
was of course at an end. Even she did not pretend
to say that Mary ought to refuse the squire.
Nor, as far as Mary was concerned, could she have further
recourse to the evils of Ushanting, and the peril of
social intercourse with ladies and gentlemen.
It was manifest that Mary was to be a lady with a
big house, and many servants, and, no doubt, a carriage
and horses. But still Mrs. Masters was not quite
silenced. She had daughters of her own, and would
solace herself by declaring to them, to her husband,
and to her specially intimate friends, that of course
they would see no more of Mary. It wasn’t
for them to expect to be asked to Bragton, and as for
herself she would much rather not. She knew her
own place and what she was born to, and wasn’t
going to let her own children spoil themselves and
ruin their chances by dining at seven o’clock
and being waited upon by servants at every turn.
Thank God her girls could make their own beds, and
she hoped they might continue to do so at any rate
till they had houses of their own.
