him; but he certainly thought, comparing
the lay lady and the clerical together, that the rule of the former
was the lighter and the pleasanter. But then Lady Lufton had given
him a living and a wife, and Mrs. Proudie had given him nothing.
Immediately after breakfast Mr. Robarts escaped to the Dragon of
Wantly, partly because he had had enough of the matutinal Mrs.
Proudie, and partly also in order that he might hurry his friends
there. He was already becoming fidgety about the time, as Harold
Smith had been on the preceding evening, and he did not give Mrs.
Smith credit for much punctuality. When he arrived at the inn he
asked if they had done breakfast, and was immediately told that not
one of them was yet down. It was already half-past eight, and they
ought to be now under weigh on the road. He immediately went to Mr.
Sowerby's room, and found that gentleman shaving himself. "Don't be a
bit uneasy," said Mr. Sowerby. "You and Smith shall have my phaeton,
and those horses will take you there in an hour. Not, however, but
what we shall all be in time. We'll send round to the whole party and
ferret them out." And then Mr. Sowerby, having evoked manifold aid
with various peals of the bell, sent messengers, male and female,
flying to all the different rooms.

"I think I'll hire a gig and go over at once," said Mark. "It would
not do for me to be late, you know."

"It won't do for any of us to be late; and it's all nonsense about
hiring a gig. It would be just throwing a sovereign away, and we
should pass you on the road. Go down and see that the tea is made,
and all that; and make them have the bill ready; and, Robarts, you
may pay it too, if you like it. But I believe we may as well leave
that to Baron Borneo--eh?" And then Mark did go down and make the
tea, and he did order the bill; and then he walked about the room,
looking at his watch, and nervously waiting for the footsteps of his
friends. And as he was so employed, he bethought himself whether it
was fit that he should be so doing on a Sunday morning; whether it
was good that he should be waiting there, in painful anxiety, to
gallop over a dozen miles in order that he might not be too late with
his sermon; whether his own snug room at home, with Fanny opposite to
him, and his bairns crawling on the floor, with his own preparations
for his own quiet service, and the warm pressure of Lady Lufton's
hand when that service should be over, was not better than all th