Mr.
Pole cast a pregnant look at the servants' row as he closed the book; but the expression of his daughters' faces positively signified that no remark was to be made, and he contained himself.

Later, the ladies told him that Gainsford had done no worse than any uneducated man would have been guilty of doing.

Mrs.Chump had, it appeared, a mother's feeling for one flat curl on her rugged forehead, which was often fondly caressed by her, for the sake of ascertaining its fixity.

Doubts of the precision of outline and general welfare of this curl, apparently, caused her to straighten her back and furtively raise her head, with an easy upward motion, as of a cork alighted in water, above the level of the looking-glass on her left hand--an action she repeated, with a solemn aspect, four times; at which point Gainsford gave way.

The ladies accorded him every extenuation for the offence.