CHAPTER 12
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A Family PartyMAGGIE left her good aunt Gritty at the end of the week, ao Garum Firs to pay her visit to aunt Pullet acc to agreement. In the mean time, very ued things had happened, and there was to be a family party at Garum to discuss and celebrate a ge in the fortunes of the Tullivers, which was likely finally to carry away the shadow of their demerits like the last limb of an eclipse, and cause their hitherto obscured virtues to shine forth in full-rounded splendour. It is pleasant to know that a new ministry just e into office are not the only fellow-men who enjoy a period of high appreciation and full-blown eulogy: in many respectable families throughout this realm relatives being creditable meet with a similar cordiality nition, whi its fine freedom from the coer of any as, suggests the hopeful possibility that we may some day without any notice find ourselves in full millennium, with cockatrices who have ceased to bite and wolves that no longer show their teeth with any but the bla iions. Lucy came so early as to have the start even of aunt Glegg; for the loo have some undisturbed talk with Maggie about the wonderful news. It seemed - did it not? said Lucy, with her prettiest air of wisdom - as if everything, even other peoples misfortunes (poor creatures!) were spiring now to make poor dear aunt Tulliver, and cousin Tom, and haughty Maggie too, if she were not obstinately bent on the trary, as happy as they deserved to be after all their troubles. To think that the very day - the very day - after Tom had e back from Newcastle,<dfn></dfn> that unfortunate yousome, whom Mr Wakem had placed at the Mill, had been pitched off his horse in a drunken fit, and was lying at St Oggs in a dangerous state, so that Wakem had signified his wish that the new purchasers should enter on the premises at o was very dreadful for that unhappy young man, but it did seem as if the misfortune had happehen, rather than at any other time, in order that cousin Tom might all the sooner have the fit reward of his exemplary duct - papa thought so very highly of him. Aunt Tulliver must certainly go to the Mill now and keep house for Tom: that was rather a loss to Lu the matter of household fort; but then, to think of poor aunty being in her old place again and gradually getting forts about her there!
On this last point Lucy had her ing projects, and when she and Maggie had made their dangerous way down the bright stairs into the handsome parlour where the very sunbeams seemed er than elsewhere, she directed her manoeuvres as any reat tacti would have done, against the weaker side of the enemy.
`Aunt Pullet, she said, seating herself on the sofa, and caressingly adjusting that ladys floating cap-string, `I want you to make up your mind what linen and things you will give Tom towards housekeeping; because youre always so generous, you give suice things, you know; and if you set the example, aunt Glegg will follow.
`That she never , my dear, said Mrs Pullet, with unusual vigour, `for she hasnt got the lio follow suit wi mine, I tell you. Shed he taste, not if shed spend the money. Big checks and live things, like stags and foxes, all her table-linen is - not a spot nor a diamont among em. But its poor work, dividing ones linen before one dies - I hought to ha dohat, Bessy, Mrs Pullet tinued, shaking her head and looking at her sister Tulliver, `when you and me chose the double diamont, the first flax iver wed spun - and the Lord knows where yours is gone.
`Id no choice, Im sure, sister, said poor Mrs Tulliver, aced to sider herself in the light of an accused person. `Im sure it was no wish o mine, iver, as I should lie awake o nights thinking o my best bleached linen all over the try.
`Take a peppermint, Mrs Tulliver, said uncle Pullet, feeling that he was a cheap and wholesome form of fort, which he was reending by example.
`O but, aunt Pullet, said Lucy, `youve so much beautiful linen. And suppose you had had daughters! Then you must have divided it, when they were married.
`Well, I dont say as I wont do it, said Mrs Pullet, `for now Toms so lucky, its nothing but right his friends should look on him and help him. Theres the table-cloths I bought at your sale, Bessy, it was nothing but good natur o me to buy em, for theyve been lying in the chest ever since. But Im not going to give Maggie any more o my Indy muslin and things, if shes to go into service again, when she might stay and keep me pany, and do my sewing for me, if she wasnt wa her brothers.
`Going into service was the expression by which the Dodson mind represeo itself the position of teacher overness, and Maggies return to that menial dition, now circumstances offered her more eligible prospects, was likely to be a sore point with all her relatives, besides Lucy. Maggie in her crude form, with her hair down her bad altogether in a state of dubious promise, was a most undesirable niece; but now, she was capable of being at onental and useful. The subject was revived in aunt and uncle Gleggs presence, over the tea and muffins.
`Hegh, hegh! said Mr Glegg, good-naturedly patting Maggie on the back, `Nonsense, nonsense! Do us hear of you taking a place again, Maggie. Why, you must ha picked up half-a-dozehearts at the bazaar - isnt there one of em the right sort of article? e, now?
`Mr Glegg, said his wife, with that shade of increased politeness in her severity, which she alut on with her crisper fronts. `Youll excuse me, but youre far too light for a man of your years. Its resped duty to her aunts and the rest of her kin as are so good to her, should have kept my niece from fixing about going away again, without sulting us - not sweethearts, if Im to use such a word, though it was never heared in my family.
`Why, what did they call us, when we went to see em, then, eh, neighbour Pullet? They thought us sweet enbbr></abbr>ough then, said Mr Glegg, winking pleasantly, while Mr Pullet, at the suggestion of sweetness, took a little more sugar.
`Mr Glegg, said Mrs G., `if yoing to be undelicate, let me know.
`La, Jane, your husbands only joking, said Mrs Pullet, `let him joke while hes got health and strength. Theres poor Mr Tilt got his mouth drawn all o one side, and couldnt laugh if he was to try.
`Ill trouble you for the muffihen, Mr Glegg, said Mrs G., `if I may be so bold to interrupt your joking. Though its other people must see the joke in a nieces putting a slight on her mothers eldest sister, as is the head o the family; and only ing in and out on short visits all the time shes been iown, and theling to go away without my knowledge - as Id laid caps out on purpose for her to make em up for me, - and me as have divided my money so equal--
`Sister, Mrs Tulliver broke in, anxiously, `Im sure Maggie hought o going away without staying at your house as well as the others. Not as its my wish she should go away at all - but quite trairy. Im sure Im i. Ive said over and ain, "My dear, youve no call to go away." But theres ten days or a fht Maggiell have before shes fixed to go: she stay at your house just as well, as Ill step in when I , and so will Lucy.
`Bessy, said Mrs Glegg, `if youd exercise a little more thought, you might know I should hardly think it was worth while to unpin a bed, and go to all that trouble now, just at the end o the time, when our house isnt above a quarter of an hours walk from Mr Deanes. She e the first thing in the m and go back the last at night, ahankful shes got a good aunt so close to her to e and sit with. I know I should, when I was her age.
`La, Jane, said Mrs Pullet, `it ud do your beds good to have somebody to sleep iheres that Striped Room smells dreadful mouldy, and the glass mildewed like anything: Im sure I thought I should be struck with death when you took me in.
`O, there is Tom! exclaimed Lucy, clapping her hands. `Hes e on Sindbad, as I told him. I was afraid he was not going to keep his promise.
Maggie jumped up to kiss Tom as he entered, with strong feeling, at this first meeting sihe prospect of returning to the Mill had been opeo him, and she kept his hand, leading him to the chair by her side. To have no cloud between herself and Tom was still a perpetual yearning ihat had its root deeper than all ge. He smiled at her very kindly this evening and said, `Well, Magsie, hows aunt Moss?
`e, e, sir, said Mr Glegg, putting out his hand. `Why, youre such a big man, you carry all before you, it seems. Youre e into your luck a good deal earlier than us old folks did - but I wish you joy, I wish you joy. Youll get the Mill all for your own again, some day, Ill be bound. You wont stop half- the hill.
`But I hope hell bear in mind as its his mothers family as he owes it to, said Mrs Glegg. `If he hadnt had them to take after, hed ha been poorly off. There was never any failures, nor lawing, nor wastefulness in our family - nor dying without wills--
`No, nor suddehs, said aunt Pullet. `Allays the doctor called in. But Tom had the Dodson skin - I said that from the first. And I dont know what you mean to do, sister Glegg, but I mean to give him a table cloth of all my three biggest sizes but one, besides sheets. I dont say what more I shall do, but that I shall do, and if I should die to-morrow, Mr Pullet, youll bear it in mind - though youll be blundering with the keys, and never remember as that ohird shelf o the left hand wardrobe, behind the night-caps with the broad ties - not the narrow-frilled uns - is the key o the drawer in the Blue Room, where the key o the Blue Closet is. Youll make a mistake and I shall niver be worthy to know it. Youve a memory for my pills and draughts, wonderful - Ill allays say that of you - but youre lost among the keys. This gloomy prospect of the fusion that would ensue on her decease was very affeg to Mrs Pullet.
`You carry it too far, Sophy - that log in and out, said Mrs Glegg, in a tone of some disgust at this folly. `You go beyond your own family. Theres nobody say I dont lock up; but I do whats reasonable, and no more. And as for the linen, I shall look out whats serviceable, to make a present of to my nevvie: Ive got cloth as has never been whittened, better worth having than other peoples fine holland; and I hope hell lie down in it and think of his aunt.
Tom thanked Mrs Glegg, but evaded any promise to meditate nightly on her virtues; and Mr Glegg effected a diversion for him by asking about Mr Deanes iions ing steam.
Lucy had had her far-sighted views in begging Tom to e on Sindbad. It appeared, when it was time to go home, that the manservant was to ride the horse, and cousin Tom was to drive home his mother and Lucy. `You must sit by yourself, aunty, said that triving young lady, `because I must sit by Tom; Ive a great deal to say to him.
In the eagerness of her affeate ay fgie, Lucy could not persuade herself to defer a versation about her with Tom, who, she thought, with such a cup of joy before him as this rapid fulfilment of his wish about the Mill, must bee pliant and flexible. Her nature supplied her with o Toms, and she uzzled as well as paio notice the unpleasant ge on his tenance when she gave him the history of the way in which Philip had used his influeh his father. She had ted on this revelation as a great stroke of policy, which was to turn Toms heart towards Philip at once, and besides that, prove that the elder Wakem was ready to receive Maggie with all the honours of a daughter-in-law. Nothing was wahen, but for dear Tom, who always had that pleasant smile when he looked at cousin Lucy, to turn pletely round, say the opposite of what he had always said before, and declare that he, for his part, was delighted that all the old grievances should be healed and that Maggie should have Philip with all suitable despatch: in cous<u></u>in Lucys opinion nothing could be easier.
But to minds strongly marked by the positive aive qualities that create severity - strength of will, scious rectitude of purpose, narrowness of imagination and intellect, great power of self-trol and a disposition to exert trol over others - prejudices e as the natural food of tendencies which get no suste of that plex, fragmentary, doubt-provoking knowledge which we call truth. Let a prejudice be bequeathed, carried in the air, adopted by hearsay, caught in through the eye - however it may e, these minds will give it a habitation: it is something to assert strongly and bravely, something to fill up the void of spontaneous ideas, something to impose on others with the authority of sciht: it is at once a staff and a baton. Every prejudice that will ahese purposes is self-evident. ood upright Tom Tullivers mind was of this class: his inward criticism of his fathers faults did not prevent him from adopting his fathers prejudice; it rejudice against a man of lax principle and lax life, and it was a meeting-poin藏书网t for all the disappointed feelings of family and personal pride. Other feelings added their force to produs bitter repugo Philip and to Maggies union with him; and notwithstanding Lucys power over her strong-willed cousin, she got nothing but a cold refusal ever to san such a marriage: `but of course Maggie could do as she liked - she had declared her determination to be indepe. For Toms part, he held himself bound by his duty to his fathers memory, and by every manly feeling, o sent to aion with the Wakems.
Thus, all that Lucy had effected by her zealous mediation was to fill Toms mind with the expectation that Maggies perverse resolve to go into a situation again, would presently metamorphose itself, as her resolves were apt to do, into something equally perverse, but entirely different - a marriage with Philip Wakem.
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