it was a quietness which would have
made a sensitive visitor uncomfortable, and which woke horrible
private qualms in the mind of the Rector. As for Mrs Morgan, she
fulfilled all her duties with a precision which was terrible to
behold: instead of taking part in the conversation as usual, and
having her own opinion, she had suddenly become possessed of such a
spirit of meekness and acquiescence as filled her husband with dismay.
The Rector was fond of his wife, and proud of her good sense, and her
judgment, and powers of conversation. If she had been angry and found
fault with him, he might have understood that mode of procedure; but
as she was not angry, but only silent, the excellent man was terribly
disconcerted, and could not tell what to do. He had done all he could
to be conciliatory, and had already entered upon a great many
explanations which had come to nothing for want of any response; and
now she sat at the head of the table making tea with an imperturbable
countenance, sometimes making little observations about the news,
perfectly calm and dignified, but taking no part in anything more
interesting, and turning off any reference that was made to her in the
most skilful manner. "Mr Morgan knows I never take any part in the
gossip of Carlingford," she said to Mr Proctor, without any intention
of wounding that good man; and he who had been in the midst of
something about Mr Wentworth came to an abrupt stop with the sense of
having shown himself as a gossip, which was very injurious to his
dignity. The late Rector, indeed, occupied a very uncomfortable
position between the married people thus engaged in the absorbing
excitement of their first quarrel. The quiet little arrows, which Mrs
Morgan intended only for her husband, grazed and stung him as they
passed, without missing at the same time their intended aim; and he
was the auditor, besides, of a great deal of information intended by
the Rector for his wife's benefit, to which Mrs Morgan paid no manner
of attention. Mr Proctor was not a man of very lively observation, but
he could not quite shut his eyes to the position of affairs; and the
natural effect upon his mind, in the circumstances, was to turn his
thoughts towards his mild Mary, whom he did not quite recognise as yet
under her Christian name. He called her Miss Wodehouse in his heart
even while in the act of making comparisons very unfavourable to the
Rector's wife, and then he introduced benevolently