We shall be able to
judge whether there be really too great a strain on her spirits, and
if so, I would talk to Kendal.'
'And I wonder what is to come of that. It seems to me like what John
Smith calls singing psalms to a dead horse.'
'John Smith! I am glad you mentioned him; I shall desire Dusautoy to
bring him here on Monday.'
'What! as poor Albinia would say, you can't exist a week without John
Smith.'
'Even so. I want him to lay out a plan for draining the garden.
That pond is intolerable. I suspect that all, yourself included,
will become far more good-tempered in consequence.'
'A capital measure, but do you mean that Edmund Kendal is going to
let you and John Smith drain his pond under his very nose, and never
find it out? I did not imagine him quite come to that.'
'Not _quite_,' said Maurice; 'it is with his free consent, and I
believe he will be very glad to have it done without any trouble to
himself. He said that Albinia _thought it damp_, and when I put a
few sanatory facts before him, thanked me heartily, and seemed quite
relieved. If they had only been in Sanscrit, they would have made
the greater impression.'
'One comfort is, Maurice, that however provoking you are at first,
you generally prove yourself reasonable at last, I am glad you are
not Mr. Kendal.'
'Ah! it will have a fine effect on you to spend your Christmas-day
tete-a-tete with him.'
Mrs.
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