Mrs. Browne was perplexed and annoyed beyond measure. She upbraided Mr.
Buxton to every one but Maggie. To her she said--"Any one in their senses
might have foreseen what had happened, and would have thought well about
it, before they went and fell in love with a young man of such expectations
as Mr. Frank Buxton."
In the middle of all this dismay, Edward came over from Woodchester for a
day or two. He had been told of the engagement, in a letter from Maggie
herself; but if was too sacred a subject for her to enlarge upon to him;
and Mrs. Browne was no letter writer. So this was his first greeting to
Maggie; after kissing her:
"Well, Sancho, you've done famously for yourself. As soon as I got your
letter I said to Harry Bish--'Still waters run deep; here's my little
sister Maggie, as quiet a creature as ever lived, has managed to catch
young Buxton, who has five thousand a-year if he's a penny.' Don't go so
red, Maggie. Harry was sure to hear of if soon from some one, and I see no
use in keeping it secret, for it gives consequence to us all."
"Mr. Buxton is quite put out about it," said Mrs. Brown, querulously; "and
I'm sure he need not be, for he's enough of money, if that's what he wants;
and Maggie's father was a clergyman, and I've seen 'yeoman,' with my own
eyes, on old Mr. Buxton's (Mr. Lawrence's father's) carts; and a clergyman
is above a yeoman any day.
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