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Wives and Daughters

Chapter 3 MOLLY GIBSON'S CHILDHOOD.

Word Count: 3002    |    Released on: 29/11/2017

ir days, was going to take a partner. It was no use reasoning to them on the subject; so Mr. Browning the vicar, Mr. Sheepshanks (Lord Cumnor's agent), and Mr. Hall himse

o regret the carelessness of people's communication nowadays, "like writing on blotting-paper, all the words running into each other," he would say. And more than once Mr. Hall had had attacks of a suspicious nature,-"rheumatism" he used to call them, but he prescribed for himself as if they

out the first day they saw him: that he was tall, grave, rather handsome than otherwise; thin enough to be called "a very genteel figure," in those days, before muscular Christianity had come into vogue; speaking with a slight Scotch accent; and, as one good lady observed, "so very trite in his conversation," by which she meant sarcastic. As to his birth, parentage, and education,-the favourite conjecture of Hollingford society was, that he was the illegitimate son of a Scotch duke, by a Frenchwoman; and the grounds for this conjecture were these:-He spoke with a Scotch accent; therefore, he must be Scotch. He had a very genteel appearanc

e might make on my lord the Earl, and my lady the Countess, Mr. Gibson was received at the end of a twelvemonth with as much welcome respect for his professional skill as Mr. Hall himself had ever been. Nay-and this was a little too much for even the kind old doctor's good temper-Mr. Gibson had even been invited once to dinner at the Towers, to dine with the great Sir Astley, the head of the profession! To be sure, Mr. Hall had been asked as well; but he was laid up just then with his gout (since he had had a partner the rheumatism had been allowed to develope itself), and he had not been able to go. Poor Mr. Hall never quite got over this mortification; after it he allowed himself to become dim of sight and hard of hearing, and kept pretty closely to the house during the two winters that remained of his life. He sent for an orphan grand-niece to keep him company in his old age; he, the woman-contemning old bachelor, became thankful for the

sion; but a fortnight afterwards she came to very high words with old Mrs. Goodenough, for gasping out her doubts whether Mr. Gibson was a man of deep feeling; judging by the narrowness of his crape hat-band, which ought to have covered his hat, whereas there was at least three inches of beaver to be seen. And, in spite of it all, Miss Browning and Miss Ph?be considered themselves as Mr. Gibson's most intimate friends, in

Miss Brownings called "really cruel" to each other when they were quite alone, Molly took her little griefs and pleasures, and poured them into her papa's ears, sooner even than into Betty's, that kind-hearted termagant. The child grew to understand her father well, and the two had the most delightful intercourse together-half banter, half seriousness, but altogether confidential friendship. Mr. Gibson kept three servants; Betty, a cook, and a girl who was supposed to be housemaid, but who was under both the elder two, and had a pretty life of it in consequence. Three servants would not have been required if it had not been Mr. Gibson's habit, as it had been Mr. Hall's before him, to take two "pupils" as they were called in the genteel language of Hollingford, "apprentices" as they were in fact-being bound by indentures, and paying a handsome premium to learn their business. They lived in the h

rapidly that his fees which he had thought prohibitory, were willingly paid, in order that the young man might make a start in life, with the prestige of having been a pupil of Gibson of Hollingford. But as Molly grew to be a little girl instead of a child, when she was about eight years old, her father perceived the awkwardness of her having her breakfasts and dinners so often a

m afraid is beyond your or anybody's power; but make them talk without stammering or giggling. Don't teach Molly too much: she must sew, and read, and write, and do her sums; but I want to keep her a child, and if I find more learning desirable for her, I'll see about giving it to her myself.

either read, or tried to read. Her summer place of study was that seat in the cherry-tree, where she got the green stains on her frock, that have already been mentioned as likely to wear Betty's life out. In spite of this "hidden worm i' th' bud," Betty was to all appearance strong, alert, and flourishing. She was the one crook in Miss Eyre's lot, who was otherwise so happy in having met with a suitable well-paid employment just when she needed it most. But Betty, though agreeing in theory with her master when he told her of the necessity of having a governess for his little daughter, was vehemently opposed to any division of her authority and influence over the child who had been her charge, her plague, and her delight ever since Mrs. Gibson's death. She took up her position as censor of all Miss Eyre's sayings and doings from the very first, and did not for a moment condescend to conceal her disapprobation. In her heart she could not help respecting the patience and painstaking of the good lady,-for a "lady" Miss Eyre was in the best sense of the word, though in Hollingford she only took rank as a shopkeeper's daughter. Yet Betty buzzed about her with the teasing pertinacity of a gnat, always ready to find fault, if not to bite. Miss Eyre's only defence came from the quarter whence it might least have

good when they is learnt, instead o' riding on Job Donkin's hay-cart, it's thy look-out, not mine. She's a little vixen, isn't she?" smiling at Miss Eyre, as she finished her speech. But the poor governess saw no humour in the affair; the comparison of Molly to a hen-sparrow was lost upon her. She was sensitive an

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1 Chapter 1 THE DAWN OF A GALA DAY.2 Chapter 2 A NOVICE AMONGST THE GREAT FOLK.3 Chapter 3 MOLLY GIBSON'S CHILDHOOD.4 Chapter 4 MR. GIBSON'S NEIGHBOURS.5 Chapter 5 CALF-LOVE.6 Chapter 6 A VISIT TO THE HAMLEYS.7 Chapter 7 FORESHADOWS OF LOVE PERILS.8 Chapter 8 DRIFTING INTO DANGER.9 Chapter 9 THE WIDOWER AND THE WIDOW.10 Chapter 10 A CRISIS.11 Chapter 11 MAKING FRIENDSHIP.12 Chapter 12 PREPARING FOR THE WEDDING.13 Chapter 13 MOLLY GIBSON'S NEW FRIENDS.14 Chapter 14 MOLLY FINDS HERSELF PATRONIZED.15 Chapter 15 THE NEW MAMMA.16 Chapter 16 THE BRIDE AT HOME.17 Chapter 17 TROUBLE AT HAMLEY HALL.18 Chapter 18 MR. OSBORNE'S SECRET.19 Chapter 19 CYNTHIA'S ARRIVAL.20 Chapter 20 MRS. GIBSON'S VISITORS.21 Chapter 21 THE HALF-SISTERS.22 Chapter 22 THE OLD SQUIRE'S TROUBLES.23 Chapter 23 OSBORNE HAMLEY REVIEWS HIS POSITION.24 Chapter 24 MRS. GIBSON'S LITTLE DINNER.25 Chapter 25 HOLLINGFORD IN A BUSTLE.26 Chapter 26 A CHARITY BALL.27 Chapter 27 FATHER AND SONS.28 Chapter 28 RIVALRY.29 Chapter 29 BUSH-FIGHTING.30 Chapter 30 OLD WAYS AND NEW WAYS.31 Chapter 31 A PASSIVE COQUETTE.32 Chapter 32 COMING EVENTS.33 Chapter 33 BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS.34 Chapter 34 A LOVER'S MISTAKE.35 Chapter 35 THE MOTHER'S MAN UVRE.36 Chapter 36 DOMESTIC DIPLOMACY.37 Chapter 37 A FLUKE, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.38 Chapter 38 MR. KIRKPATRICK, Q.C.39 Chapter 39 SECRET THOUGHTS OOZE OUT.40 Chapter 40 MOLLY GIBSON BREATHES FREELY.41 Chapter 41 GATHERING CLOUDS.42 Chapter 42 THE STORM BURSTS.43 Chapter 43 CYNTHIA'S CONFESSION.44 Chapter 44 MOLLY GIBSON TO THE RESCUE.45 Chapter 45 CONFIDENCES.46 Chapter 46 HOLLINGFORD GOSSIPS.47 Chapter 47 SCANDAL AND ITS VICTIMS.48 Chapter 48 AN INNOCENT CULPRIT.49 Chapter 49 MOLLY GIBSON FINDS A CHAMPION.50 Chapter 50 CYNTHIA AT BAY.51 Chapter 51 TROUBLES NEVER COME ALONE. 52 Chapter 52 SQUIRE HAMLEY'S SORROW.53 Chapter 53 UNLOOKED-FOR ARRIVALS.54 Chapter 54 MOLLY GIBSON'S WORTH IS DISCOVERED.55 Chapter 55 AN ABSENT LOVER RETURNS.56 Chapter 56 OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, AND ON WITH THE NEW. 57 Chapter 57 BRIDAL VISITS AND ADIEUX.58 Chapter 58 REVIVING HOPES AND BRIGHTENING PROSPECTS.59 Chapter 59 MOLLY GIBSON AT HAMLEY HALL.60 Chapter 60 ROGER HAMLEY'S CONFESSION.