'It is an unlucky time for visitors; no game to be had, and lamb so late this year, and chicken hardly to be had for love or money.' 'He'll have to put up with calves-head, that he will,' said Mrs Goodenough, solemnly.'If I'd ha' got my usual health I'd copy out a receipt of my grandmother's for a rolled calves-head,' and send it to Mrs Gibson, - the doctor has been very kind to me all through this illness, - I wish my daughter in Combermere would send me some autumn chickens - I'd pass 'em on to the doctor, that I would; but she's been a-killing of 'em all, and a-sending of them to me, and the last she sent she wrote me word was the last.' 'I wonder if they'll give a party for him!' suggested Miss Phoebe.'I should like to see a Queen's counsel for once in my life.I have seen javelin-men, but that's the greatest thing in the legal line I ever came across.' 'They'll ask Mr Ashton, of course,' said Miss Browning.'The three black graces, Law, Physic, and Divinity, as the song calls them.' Whenever there's a second course, there's always the clergyman of the parish invited in any family of gentility.' 'I wonder if he's married!' said Mrs Goodenough.Miss Phoebe had been feeling the same wonder, but had not thought it maidenly to express it, even to her sister, who was the source of knowledge, having met Mrs Gibson in the street on her way to Mrs Goodenough's.'Yes, he's married, and must have several children, for Mrs Gibson said that Cynthia Kirkpatrick had paid them a visit in London, to have lessons with her cousins.And she said that his wife was a most accomplished woman, and of good family, though she brought him no fortune.' 'It's a very creditable connection, I'm sure; it's only a wonder to me as how we've heard so little talk of it before,' said Mrs Goodenough.'At the first look of the thing, I should not ha' thought Mrs Gibson was one to hide away her fine relations under a bushel; indeed for that matter we're all of us fond o' turning the best breadth o' the gown to the front.
I remember, speaking o' breadths, how I've undone my skirts many a time and oft to put a stain or a grease-spot next to poor Mr Goodenough.He'd a soft kind of heart when first we was married, and he said, says he, "Patty, link thy right arm into my left one, then thou'lt be nearer to my heart;"and so we kept up the habit, when, poor man, he'd a deal more to think on than romancing on which side his heart lay; so as I said I always put my damaged breadths on the right hand, and when we walked arm in arm, as we always did, no one was never the wiser.' 'I should not be surprised if he invited Cynthia to pay him another visit in London,' said Miss Browning.'If he did it when he was poor, he's twenty times more likely to do it now he's a Queen's counsel.' 'Ay, work it by the rule o' three, and she stands a good chance.I only hope it won't turn her head; going up visiting in London at her age.Why, I was fifty before ever I went!' 'But she has been in France, she's quite a travelled young lady,' said Miss Phoebe.Mrs Goodenough shook her head, for a whole minute before she gave vent to her opinion.'It's a risk,' said she, 'a great risk.I don't like saying so to the doctor, but I should not like having my daughter, if I was him, so cheek-by-jowl with a girl as was brought up in the country where Robespierre and Bonyparte was born.' 'But Buonaparte was a Corsican,' said Miss Browning, who was much farther advanced both in knowledge and in liberality of opinions than Mrs Goodenough.
'And there's a great opportunity for cultivation of the mind afforded by intercourse with foreign countries.I always admire Cynthia's grace of manner, never too shy to speak, yet never putting herself forwards; she's quite a help to a party; and if she has a few airs and graces, why they're natural at her age! Now as for dear Molly, there's a kind of awkwardness about her - she broke one of our best china cups last time she was at a party at our house, and spilt the coffee on the new carpet; and then she got so confused that she hardly did anything but sit in a corner and hold her tongue all the rest of the evening.' 'She was so sorry for what she'd done, sister,' said Miss Phoebe, in a gentle tone of reproach; she was always faithful to Molly.'Well, and did I say she wasn't? but was there any need for her to be stupid all the evening after?' 'But you were rather sharp, - rather displeased -- ' 'And I think it my duty to be sharp, ay, and cross too, when I see young folks careless.And when I see my duty clear I do it; I'm not one to shrink from it, and they ought to be grateful to me.It's not every one that will take the trouble of reproving them, as Mrs Goodenough knows.I'm very fond of Molly Gibson, very, for her own sake and for her mother's too; I'm not sure if I don't think she's worth half-a-dozen Cynthias, but for all that she should not break my best china tea-cup, and then sit doing nothing for her livelihood all the rest of the evening.' By this time Mrs Goodenough gave evident signs of being tired; Molly's misdemeanors and Miss Browning's broken teacup were not as exciting subjects of conversation as Mrs Gibson's newly-discovered good luck in having a successful London lawyer for a relation.Mr Kirkpatrick had been, like many other men, struggling on in his profession, and encumbered with a large family of his own; he was ready to do a good turn for his connections, if it occasioned him no loss of time, and if (which was, perhaps, a primary condition) he remembered their existence.
