Francis Forcus will no more
allow his brother to marry your daughter than the queen will allow him to
marry one of hers. I told you that before."
"But Bessie--poor child--thinks differently."
"Tell Bessie not to be an ass then; and come to bed."
She went to bed; and, spite of her disturbing thoughts of Bessie and her
love affair, went to sleep.
"Oh, dear!" she said as she lay down. "What a lot of bother there'll be for
the servants, getting the house straight, tomorrow; and they so late to
bed! The drawing-room carpet to put down again, and all the furniture to
move into place. And it only seems the other day since we went through the
same thing on last New Year's Eve."
"Turning the house upside down is what women like. It's what they're made
for."
"I wonder how many more dances we shall have to give before both the girls
are married, and off our hands! I'm sure I shall never take the trouble to
give one for the boys."
"Shan't you, indeed!"
"Why do you speak like that, William? I don't know that I have said
anything for you to jeer at."
"Oh, go to sleep! And let's hope you won't have any worse troubles than the
laying down or taking up of a carpet."
The old servant Emily, who had lived with the Days since their marriage,
and was as much friend as servant to her mistress and the young people, had
once, in speaking of her master, made the memorable pronouncement that he
was "Apples abroad and crabs at home.
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