A slop-bowl full of strong tea, together with bread, and butter, and eggs, was produced for him in the morning, and he expected that at whatever hour he might arrive in the evening, some food should be presented to him wherewith to satisfy the cravings of nature; if, in addition to this, he had another slop-bowl of tea in the evening, he got all that he ever required, or all, at least, that he ever demanded.
But when Mary came, or rather, when she was about to come, things were altogether changed at the doctor's.

People had hitherto wondered--and especially Mrs Umbleby--how a gentleman like Dr Thorne could continue to live in so slovenly a manner; and how people again wondered, and again especially Mrs Umbleby, how the doctor could possibly think it necessary to put such a lot of furniture into a house because a little chit of a girl of twelve years of age was coming to live with him.
Mrs Umbleby had great scope for her wonder.

The doctor made a thorough revolution in his household, and furnished his house from the ground to the roof completely.

He painted--for the first time since the commencement of his tenancy--he papered, he carpeted, and curtained, and mirrored, and linened, and blanketed, as though a Mrs Thorne with a good fortune were coming home to-morrow; and all for a girl of twelve years old.

"And how," said Mrs Umbleby, to her friend Miss Gushing, "how did he find out what to buy ?" as though the doctor had been brought up like a wild beast, ignorant of the nature of tables and chairs, and with no more developed ideas of drawing-room drapery than an hippopotamus.
To the utter amazement of Mrs Umbleby and Miss Gushing, the doctor did it all very well.