'He can't really mean it,' said Sophia.
'He does,' said Lady Pomona, with tears in her eyes.
'He must unmean it again;--that's all,' said Georgiana. 'Dolly has said something to him very rough, and he resents it upon us. Why did he bring us up at all if he means to take us down before the season has begun?'
'I wonder what Adolphus has said to him. Your papa is always hard upon Adolphus.'
'Dolly can take care of himself,' said Georgiana, 'and always does do so. Dolly does not care for us.'
'Not a bit,' said Sophia.
'I'll tell you what you must do, mamma. You mustn't stir from this at all. You must give up going to Caversham altogether, unless he promises to bring us back. I won't stir;--unless he has me carried out of the house.'
'My dear, I couldn't say that to him.'
'Then I will. To go and be buried down in that place for a whole year with no one near us but the rusty old bishop and Mr Carbury, who is rustier still. I won't stand it. There are some sort of things that one ought not to stand. If you go down I shall stay up with the Primeros. Mrs Primero would have me I know. It wouldn't be nice of course. I don't like the Primeros. I hate the Primeros. Oh yes;--it's quite true; I know that as well as you, Sophia; they are vulgar; but not half so vulgar, mamma, as your friend Madame Melmotte.'
'That's ill-natured, Georgiana. She is not a friend of mine.'
'But you're going to have her down at Caversham. I can't think what made you dream of going to Caversham just now, knowing as you do how hard papa is to manage.'
'Everybody has taken to going out of town at Whitsuntide, my dear.'
'No, mamma; everybody has not. People understand too well the trouble of getting up and down for that. The Primeros aren't going down. I never heard of such a thing in all my life. What does he expect is to become of us? If he wants to save money why doesn't he shut Caversham up altogether and go abroad? Caversham costs a great deal more than is spent in London, and it's the dullest house, I think, in all England.'
The family party in Bruton Street that evening was not very gay. Nothing was being done, and they sat gloomily in each other's company. Whatever mutinous resolutions might be formed and carried out by the ladies of the family, they were not brought forward on that occasion. The two girls were quite silent, and would not speak to their father, and when he addressed them they answered simply by monosyllables. Lady Pomona was ill, and sat in a corner of a sofa, wiping her eyes. To her had been imparted upstairs the purport of the conversation between Dolly and his father. Dolly had refused to consent to the sale of Pickering unless half the produce of the sale were to be given to him at once. When it had been explained to him that the sale would be desirable in order that the Caversham property might be freed from debt, which Caversham property would eventually be his, he replied that he also had an estate of his own which was a little mortgaged and would be the better for money. The result seemed to be that Pickering could not be sold;--and, as a consequence of that, Mr Longestaffe had determined that there should be no more London expenses that year.