had
known his own mind when the carpenters began, for there was the loss
of half a day's work about those side-doors. The curtain will be a good
job, however. The maids do their work very well, and I think we shall be
able to send back some dozens of the rings. There is no occasion to put
them so very close together. I _am_ of some use, I hope, in preventing
waste and making the most of things. There should always be one
steady head to superintend so many young ones. I forgot to tell Tom of
something that happened to me this very day. I had been looking about me
in the poultry-yard, and was just coming out, when who should I see but
Dick Jackson making up to the servants' hall-door with two bits of deal
board in his hand, bringing them to father, you may be sure; mother had
chanced to send him of a message to father, and then father had bid
him bring up them two bits of board, for he could not no how do without
them. I knew what all this meant, for the servants' dinner-bell
was ringing at the very moment over our heads; and as I hate such
encroaching people (the Jacksons are very encroaching, I have always
said so: just the sort of people to get all they can), I said to the boy
directly (a great lubberly fellow of ten years old, you know, who ought
to be ashamed of himself), '_I'll_ take the boards to your father, Dick,
so get you home again as fast as you can.' The boy looked very silly,
and turned away without offering a word, for I believe I might speak
pretty sharp; and I dare say it will cure him of coming marauding about
the house for one while. I hate such greediness--so good as your father
is to the family, employing the man all the year round!"

Nobody was at the trouble of an answer; the others soon returned; and
Edmund found that to have endeavoured to set them right must be his only
satisfaction.

Dinner passed heavily. Mrs. Norris related again her triumph over Dick
Jackson, but neither play nor preparation were otherwise much talked
of, for Edmund's disapprobation was felt even by his brother, though
he would not have owned it. Maria, wanting Henry Crawford's animating
support, thought the subject better avoided. Mr. Yates, who was trying
to make himself agreeable to Julia, found her gloom less impenetrable on
any topic than that of his regret at her secession from their company;
and Mr. Rushworth, having only his own part and his own dress in his
head, had soon talked away all that could be said of eith