England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Sisters -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
There was not the shadow of a cloud the size of a man's hand on Dr. and
Mrs. Millar's pleasure in their daughter Dora's marriage to Tom
Robinson. For instead of going with Annie to Africa, or starting on a
mission of her own to bring May's college fees from Jamaica, Dora
remained at Redcross to be Tom Robinson's dear wife and cherished
darling. Mrs. Millar had long seen, in her turn, that Dora could not do
better. The fine old shop, and the fantastic shade of poor Aunt Penny,
had both become of no account. The single thing which troubled Mrs.
Millar was that the instant Lady Mary Pemberton heard of the wedding in
prospect, she invited herself to come down to it.
Dora's sisters, with the charming inconsistency of young women, were not
only acquiescent in her undignified fate--they were jubilant over it.
It did not arrest, though it subdued the general congratulations, when
it was discovered that the event made Harry Ironside all at once both
envious and aggressive. He could not see why, if Dora Millar were
marrying a rich man, and he himself had a sufficient income not merely
to make a satisfactory settlement on his wife, but to do his part in
helping her relatives, who would also be his from the day he married
her, that his marriage should not take place as soon as Dora and Tom
Robinson's. In place of an indefinite engagement, with thousands of
miles of land and sea, and all the uncertainties of life into the
bargain, between him, Harry Ironside, and Annie Millar, would it not
be much better that he should carry away with him the brightest,
bravest woman who ever asked little from a new colony; who, in place
of asking, would give full measure and running over? For Annie was not
like poor dear little Kate--Annie would be a godsend, even though she
had to go the length of learning to fire a revolver as a defence
against lions and hostile natives. It would be nothing else than
savage pride in Dr. Millar, Harry continued to argue, to decline to
let Tom Robinson defray May's small expenses at St. Ambrose's, whether
she won a scholarship or not. He was a man with an ample fortune, as
well as the nicest fellow in the world, who was going to be not only
May's coach, but her brother-in-law. In like manner it would be
downright churlish and positively unkind to Dora if her parents
refused to occupy the pleasant small house with the large garden
belonging to Tom Robinson, and close to what would be their daughter's
house. It was conveniently vacant, and looked as if it had been made
for a couple of elderly gentle-folks, who were not rich, but were
comfortably provided for. In fact, it had been fitted up by the late
Mr. Charles Robinson for just such a pair, who had in the course of
nature left the house empty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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