The Family cil
IT was at eleven oclock the m that the aunts and uncles came to hold their sultation. The fire was lighted in the large parlour, and poor Mrs Tulliver, with a fused impression that it was a great occasion, like a funeral, unbagged the bell-rope tassels and unpihe curtains, adjusting them in proper folds - looking round and shaking her head sadly at the polished tops and legs of the tables, which sister Pullet herself could not accuse of insuffit brightness. Mr Deane was not ing - he was away on business; but Mrs Deane appeared punctually in that handsome new gig with the head to it and the livery servant driving it, which had thrown so clear a light on several traits in her character to some of her female friends in St Oggs. Mr Deane had been advang in the world as rapidly as Mr Tulliver had been going down in it, and in Mrs Deanes house, the Dodson linen and plate were beginning to hold quite a subordinate position as a mere supplement to the handsomer articles of the same kind, purchased i years: a ge which had caused an occasional ess in the sisterly intercourse between her and Mrs Glegg, who felt that Susan was getting `like the rest, and there would sootle of the true Dodson spirit surviving except in herself, and it might be hoped, in those nephews who supported the Dodson name on the family land far away in the Wolds. People who live at a distance are naturally less faulty than those immediately under our own eyes; and it seems superfluous, when we sider the remote geographical position of the Ethiopians and how very little the Greeks had to do with them, to inquire further why Homer calls them `blameless.
Mrs Deane was the first to arrive, and when she had taken her seat in the large parlour, Mrs Tulliver came down to her with her ely face a little distorted nearly as it would have been if she had been g: she was not a woman who could shed abundant tears, except in moments when the prospect of losing her furniture became unusually vivid, but she felt how unfitting it was to be quite calm under present circumstances.
`O sister, what a world this is! she exclaimed as she entered. `What trouble, O dear!
Mrs Deane was a thin-lipped woman who made small well-sidered speeches on peculiar occasions, repeating them afterwards to her husband and asking him if she had not spoken very properly.
`Yes, sister, she said deliberately, `this is a ging world, and we dont know to-day what may happen tomorrow. But its right to be prepared for all things, and if troubles sent, to remember as it is without a cause. Im very sorry for you as a sister, and if the doctor orders jelly for Mr Tulliver, I hope youll let me know: Ill send it willingly. For it is but right he should have proper attendance while hes ill.
`Thank you, Susan, said Mrs Tulliver, rather faintly, withdrawing her fat hand from her sisters thin one. `But theres been no talk o jelly yet. Then after a moments pause, she added, `Theres a dozen o cut jelly-glasses upstairs... . I shall niver put jelly into em no more.
Her voice was rather agitated as she uttered the last words, but the sound of wheels diverted her thoughts. Mr and Mrs Glegg were e and were almost immediately followed by Mr and Mrs Pullet.
Mrs Pullet entered g, as a pendious mode, at all times, of expressing what were her views of life in general, and what, in brief, were the opinions she held ing the particular case before her.
Mrs Glegg had on her