But I knew nothing of English affairs, and was glad to be spared the
unpleasant charge. The consequence of leaving a man like that
irresponsible never occurred to me. His whole conscience in the
matter is to have a large sum to put into Gilbert's hands when he
comes of age. Why, he upholds those dens of iniquity in Tibbs's
Alley on that very ground!'
'Poor Gilbert! I am afraid a large sum so collected is not likely to
do him much good! and at one-and-twenty--! But that is one notion of
faithfulness!'
Albinia was much happier after that conversation. She could better
endure to regret her own injustice than to believe her husband the
cruel landlord; and it was no small advance that he had afforded her
an explanation which once he would have deemed beyond the reach of
female capacity.
In spite of the lack of little Maurice's bright presence, which, to
Albinia's great delight, his father missed as much as she did, the
period of quarantine sped by cheerfully. Sophy had not a single
sullen fit the whole time, and Albinia having persuaded Mr. Kendal
that it would be a sanatory measure to whitewash the study ceiling, he
was absolutely forced to turn out of it and live in the morning-room,
with all his books piled up in the dining-room. And on that
great occasion Albinia abstracted two fusty, faded, green canvas
blinds from the windows, carried them off with a pair of tongs, and
pushed them into a bonfire in the garden, persuaded they were the
last relics of the old fever.
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