The compliment could not be returned; Gilbert was much more boy-like
in a good sense. He had brought home an excellent character, and
showed it in every look and gesture. His father was pleased to have
him again, took the trouble to talk to him, and received such
sensible answers, that the habit of conversing was actually
established, and the dinners were enlivened, instead of oppressed, by
his presence. Towards his sisters he had become courteous, he was
fairly amiable to Aunt Maria, very attentive to grandmamma,
overflowing with affection to Mrs. Kendal, and as to little Maurice,
he almost adored him, and awakened a reciprocity which was the
delight of his heart.
At Midsummer came the grand penny-club distribution, the triumph for
which Albinia had so long been preparing. One of Mrs. Dusautoy's
hints as to Bayford tradesmen had been overruled, and goods had been
ordered from a house in London, after Albinia and Lucy had made an
incredible agitation over their patterns of calico and flannel. Mr.
Kendal was just aware that there was a prodigious commotion, but he
knew that all ladies were subject to linen-drapery epidemics, and
Albinia's took a more endurable form than a pull on his purse for the
sweetest silk in the world, and above all, it neither came into his
study nor even into his house.
It was a grand spectacle, when Mr. Dusautoy looked in on Mrs. Kendal
and her staff, armed with their yard-wands.
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