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78 "Certainly—well, not very large, Mrs. Proudie; just enough to do the work, make things comfortable, and look after the children."

"It is a very fine living," said she, "very fine. I don't remember that we have any thing so good ourselves, except it is Plumstead, the archdeacon's place. He has managed to butter his bread pretty well."

"His father was Bishop of Barchester."

"Oh yes, I know all about him. Only for that he would barely have risen to be an archdeacon, I suspect. Let me see—yours is £800, is it not, Mr. Robarts? And you such a young man! I suppose you have insured your life highly."

"Pretty well, Mrs. Proudie."

"And then, too, your wife had some little fortune, had she not? We can not all fall on our feet like that—can we, Mr. White?" and Mrs. Proudie, in her playful way, appealed to the chaplain.

Mrs. Proudie was an imperious woman; but then so also was Lady Lufton; and it may therefore be said that Mr. Robarts ought to have been accustomed to feminine domination; but as he sat there munching his toast, he could not but make a comparison between the two. Lady Lufton in her little attempts sometimes angered him; but he certainly thought, comparing the lay lady and the clerical together, that the rule of the former was the lighter and the pleasanter. But then Lady Lufton had given him a living and a wife, and Mrs. Proudie had given him nothing.

Immediately after breakfast Mr. Robarts escaped to the Dragon of Wantley, partly because he had had enough of the matutinal Mrs. Proudie, and partly also in order that he might hurry his friends there. He was already becoming fidgety about the time, as Harold Smith had been on the preceding evening, and he did not give Mrs. Smith credit for much punctuality. When he arrived at the inn he asked if they had done breakfast, and was immediately told that not one of them was yet down. It was already half past eight, and they ought to be now under way on the road.

He immediately went to Mr. Sowerby's room, and found that gentleman shaving himself. "Don't be a bit uneasy," said Mr. Sowerby. "You and Smith shall have my phaeton, and those horses will take you there in an hour. Not,