Her mother thought it better
to back her up, so the two dangerous ones were packed off then and there
on visits to friends some way off, and those alone allowed to remain at
home whose loyalty could be depended upon. The brothers did not even
suspect what was going on and believed their father's getting assistance
was because he really wanted it.
The sisters who remained at home kept their words and gave Christina all
the help they could, for over and above their sense of fair play they
reflected that the sooner Theobald was landed, the sooner another deacon
might be sent for who might be won by themselves. So quickly was all
managed that the two unreliable sisters were actually out of the house
before Theobald's next visit--which was on the Sunday following his
first.
This time Theobald felt quite at home in the house of his new friends--for
so Mrs Allaby insisted that he should call them. She took, she said,
such a motherly interest in young men, especially in clergymen. Theobald
believed every word she said, as he had believed his father and all his
elders from his youth up. Christina sat next him at dinner and played
her cards no less judiciously than she had played them in her sister's
bedroom.
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