"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 shouldn't 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 shouldn't break my
best china teacup, and then sit doing nothing for her livelihood all
the rest of the evening."