Transcribed , email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
There is sure another Flood toward, that so many couplesare coming to the Ark.—As You Like It
“Ah! it is a pitiable case!”
“What case, boys?”
“Yours, mother, with such an influx of daughters-in-law.”
“I suspect the daughters-in-law think themselves more to bepitied.”
“As too many suns in one sphere.”
“As daughters-in-law at all.”
“There’s a ready cure for that. Eh, Charlie?”
“The sight of the mother-in-law.”
“Safe up on the shelf? Ha, you flattering boys!”
“Well, each of the three bridegrooms has severally told usthat his bride was a strong likeness of the mother, so she will havethe advantage of three mirrors!”
“Ay, and each married solely for her benefit. I wonderwhich is the truest!”
“Come, Baby Charles, don’t you take to being cynicaland satirical,” said the mother. “It would be moreto the purpose to consider of the bringing them home. Let me see,Raymond and his Cecil will be at Holford’s Gate at 5.30. They must have the carriage in full state. I suppose Brewer knows.”
“Trust the ringers for scenting it out.”
“Julius and Rosamond by the down train at Willansborough, at4.50. One of you must drive old Snapdragon in the van for them. They will not mind when they understand; but there’s that poorwife of Miles’s, I wish she could have come a few days earlier. Her friend, Mrs. Johnson, is to drop her by the express at Backsworth,at 3.30.”
“Inconvenient woman!”
“I imagine that she cannot help it; Mrs. Johnson is going farnorth, and was very good in staying with her at Southampton till shecould move. Poor little thing! alone in a strange country! I’ll tell you what! One of you must run down by train, meether, and either bring her home in a fly, or wait to be picked up byRaymond’s train. Take her Miles’s letter.”
The two young men glanced at one another in dismay, and the eldersaid, “Wouldn’t nurse do better?”
“No, no, Frank,” said the younger, catching a distressedlook on their mother’s face, “I’ll look up Miles’slittle African. I’ve rather a curiosity that way. Only don’t let them start the bells under the impression thatwe are a pair of the victims. If so, I shall bolt.”
“Julius must be the nearest bolting,” said Frank. “How he accomplished it passes my comprehension. I shallnot believe in it till I see him. There, then, I’ll giveorders. Barouche for the squire, van for the rector, and the rattlingfly for the sailor’s wife. So wags the course of human life,”chanted Frank Charnock, as he strolled out of the room.
“Thanks, Charlie,” whispered his mother. “Iam grieved for that poor young thing. I wish I could go myself. And, Charlie, would you cast an eye round, and see how things look intheir rooms? You have always been my daughter.”
“Ah! my vocation is gone! Three in one day! I wonderwhich is the best of the lot. I bet upon Miles’s Cape Gooseberry.—Tired,mother darling? Shall I send in nurse? I must be off, ifI am to catch the 12.30 train.”
He bent to kiss the face, which was too delicately shaped and tintedto look old enough to be in expectation of three daughters-in-law. No, prostrate as she was upon pillows, Mrs. Charnock Poynsett did notlook as if she had attained fifty years. She was lady of ComptonPoynsett in her own right; and had been so early married and widowed,as to have been the most efficient parental influence her five sonshad ever known; and their beautiful young mother had been the objectof their adoration from the nursery upwards, so that she laughed atpeople who talked of the trouble and anxiety of rearing sons....