Page:Gaskell - North and South, vol. I, 1855.djvu/129

 there was exercise upon the piano going on. Some one was practising up a morceau de salon, playing it very 1apidly, every third note, on an average, being either indistinct, or wholly missed out, and the loud chords at the end being half of them false, but not the less satisfactory to the performer. Mrs. Thornton heard a step, like her own in its decisive character, pass the dining-room door.

"John! Is that you?"

Her son opened the door, and showed himself.

"What has brought you home so early? I thought you were going to tea with that friend of Mr. Bell's; that Mr. Hale."

"So I am, mother, I am come home to dress!"

"Dress! humph! When I was a girl, young men were satisfied with dressing once in a day. Why should you dress to go and take a cup of tea with an old parson?"

"Mr. Hale is a gentleman, and his wife and daughter are ladies."

"Wife and daughter! Do they teach too? What do they do? You have never mentioned them."

"No! mother, because I have never seen Mrs. Hale; I have only seen Miss Hale for half an hour."

"Take care you don't get caught by a penniless girl, John."

"I am not easily caught, mother, as I think you know. But I must not have Miss Hale spoken of in that way, which, you know, is offensive to me. I never was aware of any young lady trying to catch me yet, nor do I believe that any one has ever given themselves that useless trouble."