Such intolerable ill-usage Mr Gibson had never suffered
in his life. Had he been untrue, or very nearly
untrue, to those dear girls at Heavitree for this?
‘I never treated her as anything beneath me,’
he said at last.
’Yes, you did. Do you think that I don’t
understand? Haven’t I eyes in my head,
and ears? I’m not deaf yet, nor blind.
But there’s an end of it. If any young
woman ever meant anything, she means it. The truth
is, she don’t like you.’
Was ever a lover despatched in so uncourteous a way!
Then, too, he had been summoned thither as a lover,
had been specially encouraged to come there as a lover,
had been assured of success in a peculiar way, had
had the plum actually offered to him! He had done
all that this old woman had bidden him—something,
indeed, to the prejudice of his own heart; he had
been told that the wife was ready for him; and now,
because this foolish young woman didn’t know
her own mind—this was Mr Gibson’s
view of the matter—he was reviled and abused,
and told that he had behaved badly to the lady.
‘Miss Stanbury,’ he said, ’I think
that you are forgetting yourself.’
‘Highty, tighty!’ said Miss Stanbury.
’Forgetting myself! I shan’t forget
you in a hurry, Mr Gibson.’
‘Nor I you, Miss Stanbury. Good morning,
Miss Stanbury.’ Mr Gibson, as he went from
the hall-door into the street, shook the dust off his
feet, and resolved that for the future he and Miss
Stanbury should be two. There would arise great
trouble in Exeter; but, nevertheless, he and Miss
Stanbury must be two. He could justify himself
in no other purpose after such conduct as he had received.
LABURNUM COTTAGE
There had been various letters passing, during the
last six weeks, between Priscilla Stanbury and her
brother, respecting the Clock House at Nuncombe Putney.
The ladies at Nuncombe had, certainly, gone into the
Clock House on the clear understanding that the expenses
of the establishment were to be incurred on behalf
of Mrs Trevelyan. Priscilla had assented to the
movement most doubtingly. She had disliked the
idea of taking the charge of a young married woman
who was separated from her husband, and she had felt
that a going down after such an uprising, a fall from
the Clock House back to a cottage, would be very disagreeable.
She had, however, allowed her brother’s arguments
to prevail, and there they were. The annoyance
which she had anticipated from the position of their
late guest had fallen upon them: it had been
felt grievously, from the moment in which Colonel Osborne
called at the house; and now that going back to the
cottage must be endured. Priscilla understood
that there had been a settlement between Trevelyan
and Stanbury as to the cost of the establishment so
far, but that must now be at an end. In their
present circumstances, she would not continue to live
there, and had already made inquiries as to some humble
