With dinner his shyness wore off. He was by no means plain, his academic
prestige was very fair. There was nothing about him to lay hold of as
unconventional or ridiculous; the impression he created upon the young
ladies was quite as favourable as that which they had created upon
himself; for they knew not much more about men than he about women.
As soon as he was gone, the harmony of the establishment was broken by a
storm which arose upon the question which of them it should be who should
become Mrs Pontifex. "My dears," said their father, when he saw that
they did not seem likely to settle the matter among themselves, "Wait
till to-morrow, and then play at cards for him." Having said which he
retired to his study, where he took a nightly glass of whisky and a pipe
of tobacco.
CHAPTER XI
The next morning saw Theobald in his rooms coaching a pupil, and the Miss
Allabys in the eldest Miss Allaby's bedroom playing at cards with
Theobald for the stakes.
The winner was Christina, the second unmarried daughter, then just twenty-
seven years old and therefore four years older than Theobald. The
younger sisters complained that it was throwing a husband away to let
Christina try and catch him, for she was so much older that she had no
chance; but Christina showed fight in a way not usual with her, for she
was by nature yielding and good tempered.
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