As now constituted, the family of Mrs. Darlington was not so pleasant and
harmonious as could have been desired. Mr. Scragg had already succeeded in
making himself so disagreeable to the other boarders that they were
scarcely civil to him; and Mrs. Grimes, who was quite gracious with Mrs.
Scragg at first, no longer spoke to her. They had fallen out about some
trifle, quarreled, and then cut each other's acquaintance. When the
breakfast, dinner, or tea bell rang, and the boarders assembled at the
table, there was generally, at first, an embarrassing silence. Scragg
looked like a bull-dog waiting for an occasion to bark; Mrs. Scragg sat
with her lips closely compressed and her head partly turned away, so as to
keep her eyes out of the line of vision with Mrs. Grimes's face; while Mrs.
Grimes gave an occasional glance of contempt towards the lady with whom she
had had a "tiff." Barling and Mason, observing all this, and enjoying it,
were generally the first to break the reigning silence; and this was
usually done by addressing some remark to Scragg, for no other reason, it
seemed, than to hear his growling reply. Usually, they succeeded in drawing
him into an argument, when they would goad him until he became angry; a
species of irritation in which they never suffered themselves to indulge.
As for Mr. Grimes, he was a man of few words. When spoken to, he would
reply; but he never made conversation. The only man who really behaved like
a gentleman was Mr. Burton; and the contrast seen in him naturally
prepossessed the family in his favor.

The first three months' experience in taking boarders was enough to make
the heart of Mrs. Darlington sick. All domestic comfort was gone. From
early morning until late at night, she toiled harder than any servant in
the house; and, with all, had a mind pressed down with care and anxiety.
Three times during this period she had been obliged to change her cook,
yet, for all, scarcely a day passed that she did not set badly-cooked food