Free The Fall of Doctor Onslow by Frances Vernon

has he overheard? No, you are safe.’
    At that moment, the Bishop turned round and looked kindly at her. He was a big, curly-haired man, handsome in a rather cold and too regular way.
    ‘Mr Newsome and I were discussing the Frugal Marriage question, my lord,’ said Louisa. ‘Do you think it steadies a young man’s character to marry on £300 a year?’
    ‘Why, my dear Mrs Onslow, I think the answer to that is simple. If a young man’s betrothed is content to do without the elegancies of life, he is justified in marrying on so small an income, and if not, not. As for steadying a young man’s character – it may have that effect if he is of good character already, but I am afraid I doubt whether it will otherwise.’
    ‘But then,’ said Louisa, ‘to return to your first point, it is not only the elegancies of life. There are unavoidable expenses in marriage – suppose either husband or wife were to fall ill, and require sea air, not to mention a physician’s attendance?’ She did not like to mention the expense of children, because it was less than two years since, in the space of a week, the Taits had lost all five of their little daughters to scarlet fever.
    ‘Very true,’ said the Bishop, who looked to Louisa’s eyes as though he were thinking of children. ‘What do you for your part consider an adequate income for a young couple, ma’am?’
    ‘I fear I cannot make up my mind, my lord.’
    He remarked:
    ‘Sea air can certainly be very expensive – one would never guess it was provided by the Almighty. Are you fond of the seaside, Mrs Onslow?’
    ‘Extremely! Bathing is my delight. But the difficulty of securing a comfortable lodging becomes worse and worse each year. I would not dream of sullying your dinner-table with a description of what Dr Onslow and I had to endure when we were at Ramsgate last summer.’
    As Dr Tait guessed, Louisa was referring to bedbugs: he smiled, giving Louisa some idea that while he thought her charming, he did not think her dignified.
    Two places along from Louisa, Primrose had turned away from a young lady now being entertained by Mr Newsome, and was talking to the spinster whom Onslow thought looked sensible, but who was in fact given to making disconnected and eccentric remarks. The young lady had been too shy to make good conversation, and caught between two such women, Primrose wished he were in Onslow’s place between Mrs Tait and Mrs Reynolds. He always found it easier to talk to married women: spinsters made him wish, a little guiltily, that he desired to be married.
    Both Onslow and Primrose were pleased when at length, after dessert, the ladies left the dining room. They stood up with alacrity when Mrs Tait did so, and indulgently watched Louisa smile as the gauze scarf she had dropped was handed to her by Mr Newsome, who appeared to think it as frail as a spider’s web. When the last crinoline had been manoeuvred through the dining room door, they sat down again, and waited for the interesting part of the evening to begin.

7
    Port was laid on the table, the servants withdrew, and the men moved closer to their host. They talked briefly about the coming abolition of the East India Company, and the French Emperor’s ludicrous fear of English assassins, but it was not long before they moved on to discuss a subject which was of far more concern to the four clergymen present. Even the very junior cleric whom Dr Tait had invited to make up the numbers at the last minute was more interested in the new ministry’s likely views on high ecclesiastical preferments, and who should fill them, than in French and Indian affairs. The laymen were not so fascinated.
    ‘How good to think that for a while at least we will no longer have Lord Shaftesbury packing the bench with bad scholars and narrow Evangelicals,’ said Primrose, finishing his first glass of port. ‘It always astonished me that Lord Palmerston listened to him; I suppose it was sheer lack of interest combined