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"Will you say the same to me, Leam?" asked her father with an attempt at jocularity, advancing toward her. "Yes," said Leam gravely, drawing back a step. "Tell me, Mrs, Birkett, what can be done with such an impracticable creature?" cried Mr. Dundas. "She will come right: in time, dear husband," said the late marquise sweetly; and Mrs.
"So far as that goes, Church-work is pleasant to me all, indeed, I care for or am fit for; but North Aston is stony ground," said Alick. "Can you wonder? When the husbandman-in-chief is such a man as Mr. Birkett, you must make your account with stones and weeds. The spiritual cannot flourish under the hand of the unspiritual; and, considering the pastor, the flock is far from bad."
You would have been very uncomfortable with her, and would have been sure to have spoiled her. And, as Adelaide Birkett always says, very sensibly, she is odd enough already. She need not be made more so." Maria threw out a doubt as to whether Mr. Dundas had heard from Leam at all.
Birkett could not quite forbid the greater faith, the more loving endeavor which the young man threw into his ministrations, but he was the Sadducee who scoffed and made the work heavy and uphill throughout.
Birkett no more killed Ainsworth than you did; but he had killed two or three others, and so the confession didn't do him very much harm. "No; Ainsworth met his death in quite another way.
And why should she not make her bread her plate, and hold both bread and meat in her hand if she liked? Why was she to wipe her lips when she drank? and why, traveling farther afield, was she to speak when she was spoken to if she would rather be silent? Why get up from her chair when ladies like Mrs, Harrowby and Mrs. Birkett came into the room?
Her mistress, if not quite so sweet to her as to Mrs. Birkett, say, or the rector, was yet fairly amiable as mistresses go, and to-night was neither better nor worse than ordinary.
That is, prepared to marry a nice girl of his own kind, keep the estate well in hand, and set an example of respectability and orthodoxy, family prayers and bold riding, according to the ideal of the English country gentleman. But, above all, he must marry. And the wife provided for him by the eternal fitness of things was Adelaide Birkett. Who else could be found to suit the part so perfectly?
Birkett looked distressed, Adelaide, who naturally suffered more than did her mother, kept her own counsel so bravely that no one could have told how hard she had been hit.
Her one unalterable answer was always simply, "I know mamma: I know what she is feeling," and no argument could shake her from her point. At last Mrs. Birkett gave up the contest. "Well, my child," she said, sighing, "I can only hope that the constant presence of your stepmother, her kindness and sweetness, will in time soften your feeling toward her." Leam looked at her earnestly.
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