'I wonder any man alive
Should ever rear a daughter.'




CHAPTER VI

A VISIT TO THE HAMLEYS


Of course the news of Miss Gibson's approaching departure had spread
through the household before the one o'clock dinner-time came; and Mr.
Coxe's dismal countenance was a source of much inward irritation to Mr.
Gibson, who kept giving the youth sharp glances of savage reproof for
his melancholy face, and the want of appetite; which he trotted out,
with a good deal of sad ostentation; all of which was lost upon Molly,
who was too full of her own personal concerns to have any thought or
observation to spare from them, excepting once or twice when she
thought of the many days that must pass over before she should again
sit down to dinner with her father.

When she named this to him after the meal was over, and they were
sitting together in the drawing-room, waiting for the sound of the
wheels of the Hamley carriage, he laughed, and said,--

'I'm coming over to-morrow to see Mrs. Hamley; and I dare say I shall
dine at their lunch; so you won't have to wait long before you've the
treat of seeing the wild beast feed.'