Nevertheless she prepared a handsome present for the bride: a Bible
and a Prayer-book bound in velvet with silver-clasps; and also a
collection of household account-books, at the beginning of which Lady
Cumnor wrote down with her own hand the proper weekly allowance of
bread, butter, eggs, meat, and groceries per head, with the London
prices of the articles, so that the most inexperienced housekeeper
might ascertain whether her expenditure exceeded her means, as she
expressed herself in the note which she sent with the handsome, dull
present.
"If you are driving into Hollingford, Harriet, perhaps you will take
these books to Miss Kirkpatrick," said Lady Cumnor, after she had
sealed her note with all the straightness and correctness befitting
a countess of her immaculate character. "I understand they are
all going up to London to-morrow for this wedding, in spite of
what I said to Clare of the duty of being married in one's own
parish-church. She told me at the time that she entirely agreed
with me, but that her husband had such a strong wish for a visit to
London, that she did not know how she could oppose him consistently
with her wifely duty. I advised her to repeat to him my reasons for
thinking that they would be ill-advised to have the marriage in town;
but I am afraid she has been overruled. That was her one great fault
when she lived with us; she was always so yielding, and never knew
how to say 'No.'"
"Mamma!" said Lady Harriet, with a little sly coaxing in her tone.
"Do you think you would have been so fond of her, if she had opposed
you, and said 'No,' when you wished her to say 'Yes?'"
"To be sure I should, my dear. I like everybody to have an opinion of
their own; only when my opinions are based on thought and experience,
which few people have had equal opportunities of acquiring, I think
it is but proper deference in others to allow themselves to be
convinced. In fact, I think it is only obstinacy which keeps them
from acknowledging that they are. I am not a despot, I hope?" she
asked, with some anxiety.
"If you are, dear mamma," said Lady Harriet, kissing the stern
uplifted face very fondly, "I like a despotism better than a
republic, and I must be very despotic over my ponies, for it's
already getting very late for my drive round by Ash-holt."
But when she arrived at the Gibsons', she was detained so long there
by the state of the family, that she had to give up her going to
Ash-holt.