They said he was such an admirable man of business.
Certainly if he had said he would pay a sum of money at a certain time,
the money would be forthcoming on the appointed day, and this is saying a
good deal for any man. His constitutional timidity rendered him
incapable of an attempt to overreach when there was the remotest chance
of opposition or publicity, and his correct bearing and somewhat stern
expression were a great protection to him against being overreached. He
never talked of money, and invariably changed the subject whenever money
was introduced. His expression of unutterable horror at all kinds of
meanness was a sufficient guarantee that he was not mean himself. Besides
he had no business transactions save of the most ordinary butcher's book
and baker's book description. His tastes--if he had any--were, as we
have seen, simple; he had 900 pounds a year and a house; the
neighbourhood was cheap, and for some time he had no children to be a
drag upon him. Who was not to be envied, and if envied why then
respected, if Theobald was not enviable?
Yet I imagine that Christina was on the whole happier than her husband.
She had not to go and visit sick parishioners, and the management of her
house and the keeping of her accounts afforded as much occupation as she
desired.
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