The Mill on the Floss

Chapter 9

While the possible troubles of Maggie's future were occupying her

father's mind, she herself was tasting only the bitterness of the

present. Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no

memories of outlived sorrow.

The fact was, the day had begun ill with Maggie. The pleasure of

having Lucy to look at, and the prospect of the afternoon visit to

Garum Firs, where she would hear uncle Pullet's musical box, had been

marred as early as eleven o'clock by the advent of the hair-dresser

from St. Ogg's, who had spoken in the severest terms of the condition

in which he had found her hair, holding up one jagged lock after

another and saying, "See here! tut, tut, tut!" in a tone of mingled

disgust and pity, which to Maggie's imagination was equivalent to the

strongest expression of public opinion. Mr. Rappit, the hair-dresser,

with his well-anointed coronal locks tending wavily upward, like the

simulated pyramid of flame on a monumental urn, seemed to her at that

moment the most formidable of her contemporaries, into whose street at

St. Ogg's she would carefully refrain from entering through the rest

of her life.

Moreover, the preparation for a visit being always a serious affair in

the Dodson family, Martha was enjoined to have Mrs. Tulliver's room

ready an hour earlier than usual, that the laying out of the best

clothes might not be deferred till the last moment, as was sometimes

the case in families of lax views, where the ribbon-strings were never

rolled up, where there was little or no wrapping in silver paper, and

where the sense that the Sunday clothes could be got at quite easily

produced no shock to the mind. Already, at twelve o'clock, Mrs.

Tulliver had on her visiting costume, with a protective apparatus of

brown holland, as if she had been a piece of satin furniture in danger

of flies; Maggie was frowning and twisting her shoulders, that she

might if possible shrink away from the prickliest of tuckers, while

her mother was remonstrating, "Don't, Maggie, my dear; don't make

yourself so ugly!" and Tom's cheeks were looking particularly

brilliant as a relief to his best blue suit, which he wore with

becoming calmness, having, after a little wrangling, effected what was

always the one point of interest to him in his toilet: he had

transferred all the contents of his every-day pockets to those

actually in wear.

As for Lucy, she was just as pretty and neat as she had been

yesterday; no accidents ever happened to her clothes, and she was

never uncomfortable in them, so that she looked with wondering pity at

Maggie, pouting and writhing under the exasperating tucker. Maggie

would certainly have torn it off, if she had not been checked by the

remembrance of her recent humiliation about her hair; as it was, she

confined herself to fretting and twisting, and behaving peevishly

about the card-houses which they were allowed to build till dinner, as

a suitable amusement for boys and girls in their best clothes. Tom

could build perfect pyramids of houses; but Maggie's would never bear

the laying on the roof. It was always so with the things that Maggie

made; and Tom had deduced the conclusion that no girls could ever make

anything. But it happened that Lucy proved wonderfully clever at

building; she handled the cards so lightly, and moved so gently, that

Tom condescended to admire her houses as well as his own, the more

readily because she had asked him to teach her. Maggie, too, would

have admired Lucy's houses, and would have given up her own

unsuccessful building to contemplate them, without ill temper, if her

tucker had not made her peevish, and if Tom had not inconsiderately

laughed when her houses fell, and told her she was "a stupid."

"Don't laugh at me, Tom!" she burst out angrily; "I'm not a stupid. I

know a great many things you don't."

"Oh, I dare say, Miss Spitfire! I'd never be such a cross thing as

you, making faces like that. Lucy doesn't do so. I like Lucy better

than you; _I_ wish Lucy was _my_ sister."

"Then it's very wicked and cruel of you to wish so," said Maggie,

starting up hurriedly from her place on the floor, and upsetting Tom's

wonderful pagoda. She really did not mean it, but the circumstantial

evidence was against her, and Tom turned white with anger, but said

nothing; he would have struck her, only he knew it was cowardly to

strike a girl, and Tom Tulliver was quite determined he would never do

anything cowardly.

Maggie stood in dismay and terror, while Tom got up from the floor and

walked away, pale, from the scattered ruins of his pagoda, and Lucy

looked on mutely, like a kitten pausing from its lapping.

"Oh, Tom," said Maggie, at last, going half-way toward him, "I didn't

mean to knock it down, indeed, indeed I didn't."

Tom took no notice of her, but took, instead, two or three hard peas

out of his pocket, and shot them with his thumbnail against the

window, vaguely at first, but presently with the distinct aim of

hitting a superannuated blue-bottle which was exposing its imbecility

in the spring sunshine, clearly against the views of Nature, who had

provided Tom and the peas for the speedy destruction of this weak

individual.

Thus the morning had been made heavy to Maggie, and Tom's persistent

coldness to her all through their walk spoiled the fresh air and

sunshine for her. He called Lucy to look at the half-built bird's nest

without caring to show it Maggie, and peeled a willow switch for Lucy

and himself, without offering one to Maggie. Lucy had said, "Maggie,

shouldn't _you_ like one?" but Tom was deaf.

Still, the sight of the peacock opportunely spreading his tail on the

stackyard wall, just as they reached Garum Firs, was enough to divert

the mind temporarily from personal grievances. And this was only the

beginning of beautiful sights at Garum Firs. All the farmyard life was

wonderful there,--bantams, speckled and top-knotted; Friesland hens,

with their feathers all turned the wrong way; Guinea-fowls that flew

and screamed and dropped their pretty spotted feathers; pouter-pigeons

and a tame magpie; nay, a goat, and a wonderful brindled dog, half

mastiff, half bull-dog, as large as a lion. Then there were white

railings and white gates all about, and glittering weathercocks of

various design, and garden-walks paved with pebbles in beautiful

patterns,--nothing was quite common at Garum Firs; and Tom thought

that the unusual size of the toads there was simply due to the general

unusualness which characterized uncle Pullet's possessions as a

gentleman farmer. Toads who paid rent were naturally leaner. As for

the house, it was not less remarkable; it had a receding centre, and

two wings with battlemented turrets, and was covered with glittering

white stucco.

Uncle Pullet had seen the expected party approaching from the window,

and made haste to unbar and unchain the front door, kept always in

this fortified condition from fear of tramps, who might be supposed to

know of the glass case of stuffed birds in the hall, and to

contemplate rushing in and carrying it away on their heads. Aunt

Pullet, too, appeared at the doorway, and as soon as her sister was

within hearing said, "Stop the children, for God's sake! Bessy; don't

let 'em come up the door-steps; Sally's bringing the old mat and the

duster, to rub their shoes."

Mrs. Pullet's front-door mats were by no means intended to wipe shoes

on; the very scraper had a deputy to do its dirty work. Tom rebelled

particularly against this shoewiping, which he always considered in

the light of an indignity to his s*x. He felt it as the beginning of

the disagreeables incident to a visit at aunt Pullet's, where he had

once been compelled to sit with towels wrapped round his boots; a fact

which may serve to correct the too-hasty conclusion that a visit to

Garum Firs must have been a great treat to a young gentleman fond of

animals,--fond, that is, of throwing stones at them.

The next disagreeable was confined to his feminine companions; it was

the mounting of the polished oak stairs, which had very handsome

carpets rolled up and laid by in a spare bedroom, so that the ascent

of these glossy steps might have served, in barbarous times, as a

trial by ordeal from which none but the most spotless virtue could

have come off with unbroken limbs. Sophy's weakness about these

polished stairs was always a subject of bitter remonstrance on Mrs.

Glegg's part; but Mrs. Tulliver ventured on no comment, only thinking

to herself it was a mercy when she and the children were safe on the

landing.

"Mrs. Gray has sent home my new bonnet, Bessy," said Mrs. Pullet, in a

pathetic tone, as Mrs. Tulliver adjusted her cap.

"Has she, sister?" said Mrs. Tulliver, with an air of much interest.

"And how do you like it?"

"It's apt to make a mess with clothes, taking 'em out and putting 'em

in again," said Mrs. Pullet, drawing a bunch of keys from her pocket

and looking at them earnestly, "but it 'ud be a pity for you to go

away without seeing it. There's no knowing what may happen."

Mrs. Pullet shook her head slowly at this last serious consideration,

which determined her to single out a particular key.

"I'm afraid it'll be troublesome to you getting it out, sister," said

Mrs. Tulliver; "but I _should_ like to see what sort of a crown she's

made you."

Mrs. Pullet rose with a melancholy air and unlocked one wing of a very

bright wardrobe, where you may have hastily supposed she would find a

new bonnet. Not at all. Such a supposition could only have arisen from

a too-superficial acquaintance with the habits of the Dodson family.

In this wardrobe Mrs. Pullet was seeking something small enough to be

hidden among layers of linen,--it was a door-key.

"You must come with me into the best room," said Mrs. Pullet.

"May the children come too, sister?" inquired Mrs. Tulliver, who saw

that Maggie and Lucy were looking rather eager.

"Well," said aunt Pullet, reflectively, "it'll perhaps be safer for

'em to come; they'll be touching something if we leave 'em behind."

So they went in procession along the bright and slippery corridor,

dimly lighted by the semi-lunar top of the window which rose above the

closed shutter; it was really quite solemn. Aunt Pullet paused and

unlocked a door which opened on something still more solemn than the

passage,--a darkened room, in which the outer light, entering feebly,

showed what looked like the corpses of furniture in white shrouds.

Everything that was not shrouded stood with its legs upward. Lucy laid

hold of Maggie's frock, and Maggie's heart beat rapidly.

Aunt Pullet half-opened the shutter and then unlocked the wardrobe,

with a melancholy deliberateness which was quite in keeping with the

funereal solemnity of the scene. The delicious scent of rose-leaves

that issued from the wardrobe made the process of taking out sheet

after sheet of silver paper quite pleasant to assist at, though the

sight of the bonnet at last was an anticlimax to Maggie, who would

have preferred something more strikingly preternatural. But few things

could have been more impressive to Mrs. Tulliver. She looked all round

it in silence for some moments, and then said emphatically, "Well,

sister, I'll never speak against the full crowns again!"

It was a great concession, and Mrs. Pullet felt it; she felt something

was due to it.

"You'd like to see it on, sister?" she said sadly. "I'll open the

shutter a bit further."

"Well, if you don't mind taking off your cap, sister," said Mrs.

Tulliver.

Mrs. Pullet took off her cap, displaying the brown silk scalp with a

jutting promontory of curls which was common to the more mature and

judicious women of those times, and placing the bonnet on her head,

turned slowly round, like a draper's lay-figure, that Mrs. Tulliver

might miss no point of view.

"I've sometimes thought there's a loop too much o' ribbon on this left

side, sister; what do you think?" said Mrs. Pullet.

Mrs. Tulliver looked earnestly at the point indicated, and turned her

head on one side. "Well, I think it's best as it is; if you meddled

with it, sister, you might repent."

"That's true," said aunt Pullet, taking off the bonnet and looking at

it contemplatively.

"How much might she charge you for that bonnet, sister?" said Mrs.

Tulliver, whose mind was actively engaged on the possibility of

getting a humble imitation of this _chef-d'uvre_ made from a piece

of silk she had at home.

Mrs. Pullet screwed up her mouth and shook her head, and then

whispered, "Pullet pays for it; he said I was to have the best bonnet

at Garum Church, let the next best be whose it would."

She began slowly to adjust the trimmings, in preparation for returning

it to its place in the wardrobe, and her thoughts seemed to have taken

a melancholy turn, for she shook her head.

"Ah," she said at last, "I may never wear it twice, sister; who

knows?"

"Don't talk o' that sister," answered Mrs. Tulliver. "I hope you'll

have your health this summer."

"Ah! but there may come a death in the family, as there did soon after

I had my green satin bonnet. Cousin Abbott may go, and we can't think

o' wearing crape less nor half a year for him."

"That _would_ be unlucky," said Mrs. Tulliver, entering thoroughly

into the possibility of an inopportune decease. "There's never so much

pleasure i' wearing a bonnet the second year, especially when the

crowns are so chancy,--never two summers alike."

"Ah, it's the way i' this world," said Mrs. Pullet, returning the

bonnet to the wardrobe and locking it up. She maintained a silence

characterized by head-shaking, until they had all issued from the

solemn chamber and were in her own room again. Then, beginning to cry,

she said, "Sister, if you should never see that bonnet again till I'm

dead and gone, you'll remember I showed it you this day."

Mrs. Tulliver felt that she ought to be affected, but she was a woman

of sparse tears, stout and healthy; she couldn't cry so much as her

sister Pullet did, and had often felt her deficiency at funerals. Her

effort to bring tears into her eyes issued in an odd contraction of

her face. Maggie, looking on attentively, felt that there was some

painful mystery about her aunt's bonnet which she was considered too

young to understand; indignantly conscious, all the while, that she

could have understood that, as well as everything else, if she had

been taken into confidence.

When they went down, uncle Pullet observed, with some acumen, that he

reckoned the missis had been showing her bonnet,--that was what had

made them so long upstairs. With Tom the interval had seemed still

longer, for he had been seated in irksome constraint on the edge of a

sofa directly opposite his uncle Pullet, who regarded him with

twinkling gray eyes, and occasionally addressed him as "Young sir."

"Well, young sir, what do you learn at school?" was a standing

question with uncle Pullet; whereupon Tom always looked sheepish,

rubbed his hands across his face, and answered, "I don't know." It was

altogether so embarrassing to be seated _tête- -tête_ with uncle

Pullet, that Tom could not even look at the prints on the walls, or

the flycages, or the wonderful flower-pots; he saw nothing but his

uncle's gaiters. Not that Tom was in awe of his uncle's mental

superiority; indeed, he had made up his mind that he didn't want to be

a gentleman farmer, because he shouldn't like to be such a

thin-legged, silly fellow as his uncle Pullet,--a molly-coddle, in

fact. A boy's sheepishness is by no means a sign of overmastering

reverence; and while you are making encouraging advances to him under

the idea that he is overwhelmed by a sense of your age and wisdom, ten

to one he is thinking you extremely queer. The only consolation I can

suggest to you is, that the Greek boys probably thought the same of

Aristotle. It is only when you have mastered a restive horse, or

thrashed a drayman, or have got a gun in your hand, that these shy

juniors feel you to be a truly admirable and enviable character. At

least, I am quite sure of Tom Tulliver's sentiments on these points.

In very tender years, when he still wore a lace border under his

outdoor cap, he was often observed peeping through the bars of a gate

and making minatory gestures with his small forefinger while he

scolded the sheep with an inarticulate burr, intended to strike terror

into their astonished minds; indicating thus early that desire for

mastery over the inferior animals, wild and domestic, including

cockchafers, neighbors' dogs, and small sisters, which in all ages has

been an attribute of so much promise for the fortunes of our race.

Now, Mr. Pullet never rode anything taller than a low pony, and was

the least predatory of men, considering firearms dangerous, as apt to

go off of themselves by nobody's particular desire. So that Tom was

not without strong reasons when, in confidential talk with a chum, he

had described uncle Pullet as a nincompoop, taking care at the same

time to observe that he was a very "rich fellow."

The only alleviating circumstance in a _tête- -tête_ with uncle Pullet

was that he kept a variety of lozenges and peppermint-drops about his

person, and when at a loss for conversation, he filled up the void by

proposing a mutual solace of this kind.

"Do you like peppermints, young sir?" required only a tacit answer

when it was accompanied by a presentation of the article in question.

The appearance of the little girls suggested to uncle Pullet the

further solace of small sweet-cakes, of which he also kept a stock

under lock and key for his own private eating on wet days; but the

three children had no sooner got the tempting delicacy between their

fingers, than aunt Pullet desired them to abstain from eating it till

the tray and the plates came, since with those crisp cakes they would

make the floor "all over" crumbs. Lucy didn't mind that much, for the

cake was so pretty, she thought it was rather a pity to eat it; but

Tom, watching his opportunity while the elders were talking, hastily

stowed it in his mouth at two bites, and chewed it furtively. As for

Maggie, becoming fascinated, as usual, by a print of Ulysses and

Nausicaa, which uncle Pullet had bought as a "pretty Scripture thing,"

she presently let fall her cake, and in an unlucky movement crushed it

beneath her foot,--a source of so much agitation to aunt Pullet and

conscious disgrace to Maggie, that she began to despair of hearing the

musical snuff-box to-day, till, after some reflection, it occurred to

her that Lucy was in high favor enough to venture on asking for a

tune. So she whispered to Lucy; and Lucy, who always did what she was

desired to do, went up quietly to her uncle's knee, and blush-all over

her neck while she fingered her necklace, said, "Will you please play

us a tune, uncle?"

Lucy thought it was by reason of some exceptional talent in uncle

Pullet that the snuff-box played such beautiful tunes, and indeed the

thing was viewed in that light by the majority of his neighbors in

Garum. Mr. Pullet had _bought_ the box, to begin with, and he

understood winding it up, and knew which tune it was going to play

beforehand; altogether the possession of this unique "piece of music"

was a proof that Mr. Pullet's character was not of that entire nullity

which might otherwise have been attributed to it. But uncle Pullet,

when entreated to exhibit his accomplishment, never depreciated it by

a too-ready consent. "We'll see about it," was the answer he always

gave, carefully abstaining from any sign of compliance till a suitable

number of minutes had passed. Uncle Pullet had a programme for all

great social occasions, and in this way fenced himself in from much

painful confusion and perplexing freedom of will.

Perhaps the suspense did heighten Maggie's enjoyment when the fairy

tune began; for the first time she quite forgot that she had a load on

her mind, that Tom was angry with her; and by the time "Hush, ye

pretty warbling choir," had been played, her face wore that bright

look of happiness, while she sat immovable with her hands clasped,

which sometimes comforted her mother with the sense that Maggie could

look pretty now and then, in spite of her brown skin. But when the

magic music ceased, she jumped up, and running toward Tom, put her arm

round his neck and said, "Oh, Tom, isn't it pretty?"

Lest you should think it showed a revolting insensibility in Tom that

he felt any new anger toward Maggie for this uncalled-for and, to him,

inexplicable caress, I must tell you that he had his glass of cowslip

wine in his hand, and that she jerked him so as to make him spill half

of it. He must have been an extreme milksop not to say angrily, "Look

there, now!" especially when his resentment was sanctioned, as it was,

by general disapprobation of Maggie's behavior.

"Why don't you sit still, Maggie?" her mother said peevishly.

"Little gells mustn't come to see me if they behave in that way," said

aunt Pullet.

"Why, you're too rough, little miss," said uncle Pullet.

Poor Maggie sat down again, with the music all chased out of her soul,

and the seven small demons all in again.

Mrs. Tulliver, foreseeing nothing but misbehavior while the children

remained indoors, took an early opportunity of suggesting that, now

they were rested after their walk, they might go and play out of

doors; and aunt Pullet gave permission, only enjoining them not to go

off the paved walks in the garden, and if they wanted to see the

poultry fed, to view them from a distance on the horse-block; a

restriction which had been imposed ever since Tom had been found

guilty of running after the peacock, with an illusory idea that fright

would make one of its feathers drop off.

Mrs. Tulliver's thoughts had been temporarily diverted from the

quarrel with Mrs. Glegg by millinery and maternal cares, but now the

great theme of the bonnet was thrown into perspective, and the

children were out of the way, yesterday's anxieties recurred.

"It weighs on my mind so as never was," she said, by way of opening

the subject, "sister Glegg's leaving the house in that way. I'm sure

I'd no wish t' offend a sister."

"Ah," said aunt Pullet, "there's no accounting for what Jane 'ull do.

I wouldn't speak of it out o' the family, if it wasn't to Dr.

Turnbull; but it's my belief Jane lives too low. I've said so to

Pullet often and often, and he knows it."

"Why, you said so last Monday was a week, when we came away from

drinking tea with 'em," said Mr. Pullet, beginning to nurse his knee

and shelter it with his pocket-hand-kerchief, as was his way when the

conversation took an interesting turn.

"Very like I did," said Mrs. Pullet, "for you remember when I said

things, better than I can remember myself. He's got a wonderful

memory, Pullet has," she continued, looking pathetically at her

sister. "I should be poorly off if he was to have a stroke, for he

always remembers when I've got to take my doctor's stuff; and I'm

taking three sorts now."

"There's the 'pills as before' every other night, and the new drops at

eleven and four, and the 'fervescing mixture 'when agreeable,'"

rehearsed Mr. Pullet, with a punctuation determined by a lozenge on

his tongue.

"Ah, perhaps it 'ud be better for sister Glegg if _she'd_ go to the

doctor sometimes, instead o' chewing Turkey rhubard whenever there's

anything the matter with her," said Mrs. Tulliver, who naturally saw

the wide subject of medicine chiefly in relation to Mrs. Glegg.

"It's dreadful to think on," said aunt Pullet, raising her hands and

letting them fall again, "people playing with their own insides in

that way! And it's flying i' the face o' Providence; for what are the

doctors for, if we aren't to call 'em in? And when folks have got the

money to pay for a doctor, it isn't respectable, as I've told Jane

many a time. I'm ashamed of acquaintance knowing it."

"Well, _we've_ no call to be ashamed," said Mr. Pullet, "for Doctor

Turnbull hasn't got such another patient as you i' this parish, now

old Mrs. Sutton's gone."

"Pullet keeps all my physic-bottles, did you know, Bessy?" said Mrs.

Pullet. "He won't have one sold. He says it's nothing but right folks

should see 'em when I'm gone. They fill two o' the long store-room

shelves a'ready; but," she added, beginning to cry a little, "it's

well if they ever fill three. I may go before I've made up the dozen

o' these last sizes. The pill-boxes are in the closet in my

room,--you'll remember that, sister,--but there's nothing to show for

the boluses, if it isn't the bills."

"Don't talk o' your going, sister," said Mrs. Tulliver; "I should have

nobody to stand between me and sister Glegg if you was gone. And

there's nobody but you can get her to make it up with Mr. Tulliver,

for sister Deane's never o' my side, and if she was, it's not to be

looked for as she can speak like them as have got an independent

fortin."

"Well, your husband _is_ awk'ard, you know, Bessy," said Mrs. Pullet,

good-naturedly ready to use her deep depression on her sister's

account as well as her own. "He's never behaved quite so pretty to our

family as he should do, and the children take after him,--the boy's

very mischievous, and runs away from his aunts and uncles, and the

gell's rude and brown. It's your bad luck, and I'm sorry for you,

Bessy; for you was allays my favorite sister, and we allays liked the

same patterns."

"I know Tulliver's hasty, and says odd things," said Mrs. Tulliver,

wiping away one small tear from the corner of her eye; "but I'm sure

he's never been the man, since he married me, to object to my making

the friends o' my side o' the family welcome to the house."

"_I_ don't want to make the worst of you, Bessy," said Mrs. Pullet,

compassionately, "for I doubt you'll have trouble enough without that;

and your husband's got that poor sister and her children hanging on

him,--and so given to lawing, they say. I doubt he'll leave you poorly

off when he dies. Not as I'd have it said out o' the family."

This view of her position was naturally far from cheering to Mrs.

Tulliver. Her imagination was not easily acted on, but she could not

help thinking that her case was a hard one, since it appeared that

other people thought it hard.

"I'm sure, sister, I can't help myself," she said, urged by the fear

lest her anticipated misfortunes might be held retributive, to take

comprehensive review of her past conduct. "There's no woman strives

more for her children; and I'm sure at scouring-time this Lady-day as

I've had all the bedhangings taken down I did as much as the two gells

put together; and there's the last elder-flower wine I've

made--beautiful! I allays offer it along with the sherry, though

sister Glegg will have it I'm so extravagant; and as for liking to

have my clothes tidy, and not go a fright about the house, there's

nobody in the parish can say anything against me in respect o'

backbiting and making mischief, for I don't wish anybody any harm; and

nobody loses by sending me a porkpie, for my pies are fit to show with

the best o' my neighbors'; and the linen's so in order as if I was to

die to-morrow I shouldn't be ashamed. A woman can do no more nor she

can."

"But it's all o' no use, you know, Bessy," said Mrs. Pullet, holding

her head on one side, and fixing her eyes pathetically on her sister,

"if your husband makes away with his money. Not but what if you was

sold up, and other folks bought your furniture, it's a comfort to

think as you've kept it well rubbed. And there's the linen, with your

maiden mark on, might go all over the country. It 'ud be a sad pity

for our family." Mrs. Pullet shook her head slowly.

"But what can I do, sister?" said Mrs. Tulliver. "Mr. Tulliver's not a

man to be dictated to,--not if I was to go to the parson and get by

heart what I should tell my husband for the best. And I'm sure I don't

pretend to know anything about putting out money and all that. I could

never see into men's business as sister Glegg does."

"Well, you're like me in that, Bessy," said Mrs. Pullet; "and I think

it 'ud be a deal more becoming o' Jane if she'd have that pier-glass

rubbed oftener,--there was ever so many spots on it last

week,--instead o' dictating to folks as have more comings in than she

ever had, and telling 'em what they're to do with their money. But

Jane and me were allays contrairy; she _would_ have striped things,

and I like spots. You like a spot too, Bessy; we allays hung together

i' that."

"Yes, Sophy," said Mrs. Tulliver, "I remember our having a blue ground

with a white spot both alike,--I've got a bit in a bed-quilt now; and

if you would but go and see sister Glegg, and persuade her to make it

up with Tulliver, I should take it very kind of you. You was allays a

good sister to me."

"But the right thing 'ud be for Tulliver to go and make it up with her

himself, and say he was sorry for speaking so rash. If he's borrowed

money of her, he shouldn't be above that," said Mrs. Pullet, whose

partiality did not blind her to principles; she did not forget what

was due to people of independent fortune.

"It's no use talking o' that," said poor Mrs. Tulliver, almost

peevishly. "If I was to go down on my bare knees on the gravel to

Tulliver, he'd never humble himself."

"Well, you can't expect me to persuade _Jane_ to beg pardon," said

Mrs. Pullet. "Her temper's beyond everything; it's well if it doesn't

carry her off her mind, though there never _was_ any of our family

went to a madhouse."

"I'm not thinking of her begging pardon," said Mrs. Tulliver. "But if

she'd just take no notice, and not call her money in; as it's not so

much for one sister to ask of another; time 'ud mend things, and

Tulliver 'ud forget all about it, and they'd be friends again."

Mrs. Tulliver, you perceive, was not aware of her husband's

irrevocable determination to pay in the five hundred pounds; at least

such a determination exceeded her powers of belief.

"Well, Bessy," said Mrs. Pullet, mournfully, "_I_ don't want to help

you on to ruin. I won't be behindhand i' doing you a good turn, if it

is to be done. And I don't like it said among acquaintance as we've

got quarrels in the family. I shall tell Jane that; and I don't mind

driving to Jane's tomorrow, if Pullet doesn't mind. What do you say,

Mr. Pullet?"

"I've no objections," said Mr. Pullet, who was perfectly contented

with any course the quarrel might take, so that Mr. Tulliver did not

apply to _him_ for money. Mr. Pullet was nervous about his

investments, and did not see how a man could have any security for his

money unless he turned it into land.

After a little further discussion as to whether it would not be better

for Mrs. Tulliver to accompany them on a visit to sister Glegg, Mrs.

Pullet, observing that it was tea-time, turned to reach from a drawer

a delicate damask napkin, which she pinned before her in the fashion

of an apron. The door did, in fact, soon open, but instead of the

tea-tray, Sally introduced an object so startling that both Mrs.

Pullet and Mrs. Tulliver gave a scream, causing uncle Pullet to

swallow his lozenge--for the fifth time in his life, as he afterward

noted.