once even went so far as to use the
word "disgusting" in conversing with Andrew on the subject.

Giacomo, however, was very determined, notwithstanding his affection
for his daughter, and disagreeable scenes took place between them. She
showed her displeasure in a thousand ways, and was positively rude to
Mrs. Brooks when she invited Miriam to her house.

Giacomo had a sister, a Mrs. Dabb, who lived in London. She had
married a provision dealer in the Borough, and he employed not only a
staff of assistants, but a couple of clerks. Mrs. Dabb, oddly enough,
was a fair-haired woman, with blue eyes and a rosy complexion. She had
rather a wide, plump face, and wore her hair in ringlets. She lived at
the shop, but she had a drawing-room over it with a circular table in
the middle, and round it lay the "Keepsake" and "Friendship's
Offering," in red silk, with Mrs. Hemans' and Mr. Montgomery's poetry.
Into these she occasionally looked, and refreshed herself by comparing
her intellect with that of the female kind generally. She desired
above everything not to be considered commonplace, believed in love at
first sight, was not altogether unfavourable to elopements, carefully
repressed any tendency to unnecessary order, wore a loose dressing-gown
all the morning, had her breakfast in bed, let her hair stray a little
over her face, cultivated a habit of shaking it off and pushing it back
with her fingers, and generally went as far to be thought a little
"wild" as was possible for the wife of a respectable, solid, eminently
British, close-fisted Borough tradesman. Nevertheless she had a huge
appetite, and always had ham or sausages for tea. Giacomo she
despised, on the ground that his occupation was so limited, that it
contracted the imagination, and that he did not "live in the
metropolis, but vegetated in a country town." She consequently very
seldom visited Cowfold, and very seldom wrote to her brother. Giacomo,
however, thought it his duty to tell his sister of his approaching
marriage; and Mrs. Dabb, who was endowed with great curiosity, replied
that, if it was quite agreeable, she would come to Cowfold for two or
three days to make the acquaintance of Mrs. Brooks and obtain a change
of air, as she had suffered somewhat from feelings of languor of late
and a little fever on the nerves. Accordingly she came, and in a short
time saw what was the state of affairs between Miriam and her father.
She rather liked Miriam