its
freshness--everything, in fact, that appetites at leisure could desire,
in perhaps greater perfection, though not in greater abundance, than at
Squire Cass's.

For the Squire's wife had died long ago, and the Red House was without
that presence of the wife and mother which is the fountain of wholesome
love and fear in parlour and kitchen; and this helped to account not
only for there being more profusion than finished excellence in the
holiday provisions, but also for the frequency with which the proud
Squire condescended to preside in the parlour of the Rainbow rather
than under the shadow of his own dark wainscot; perhaps, also, for the
fact that his sons had turned out rather ill. Raveloe was not a place
where moral censure was severe, but it was thought a weakness in the
Squire that he had kept all his sons at home in idleness; and though
some licence was to be allowed to young men whose fathers could afford
it, people shook their heads at the courses of the second son, Dunstan,
commonly called Dunsey Cass, whose taste for swopping and betting might
turn out to be a sowing of something worse than wild oats. To be sure,
the neighbours said, it was no matter what became of Dunsey--a spiteful
jeering fellow, who seemed to enjoy his drink the more when other
people went dry--always provided that his doings did not bring trouble
on a family like Squire Cass's, with a monument in the church, and
tankards older than King George. But it would be a thousand pities if
Mr. Godfrey, the eldest, a fine open-faced good-natured young man who
was to come into the land some day, should take to going along the same
road with his brother, as he had seemed to do of late. If he went on
in that way, he would lose Miss Nancy Lammeter; for it was well known
that she had looked very shyly on him ever since last Whitsuntide
twelvemonth, when there was so much talk about his being away from home
days and days together. There was something wrong, more than
common--that was quite clear; for Mr. Godfrey didn't look half so
fresh-coloured and open as he used to do. At one time everybody was
saying, What a handsome couple he and Miss Nancy Lammeter would make!
and if she could come to be mistress at the Red House, there would be a
fine change, for the Lammeters had been brought up in that way, that
they never suffered a pinch of salt to be wasted, and yet everybody in
their household had of the best, according to his place. Such a
daug