Her social triumphs (so she regarded them) had made her
more ambitious and more aggressive than ever. She was less solicitous
about the family in general, which seemed to be moving on satisfactorily
enough, than she was about the head of it himself, who appeared
distinctly to be lagging behind.
Marshall now listened to his daughter's urgings with a more serious
consideration; she was only saying to him what older and more experienced
people had said already--Susan Bates, for example, and Tom Bingham. Susan
Bates, in fact, had renewed the attack, and she prosecuted it whenever
occasion offered. She had not scrupled, indeed, to pursue the theme
within the precincts of her own house.
Mrs. Bates had not yet achieved the peculiar aboriginal function which
she had outlined to Jane in the course of their first talk--the reel, the
old settlers, and the young squaws to pour firewater were still in the
future; but she had entertained the Marshalls at dinner, _en famille_,
and she had pushed the subject with still greater insistency in her own
house than at David Marshall's office.
For the occasion of the Marshall dinner Mrs. Bates put her household on a
peace footing. She banished, as far as possible, all traces of social
war-paint. She determined to dispense with as many of the men-servants as
might be, and to have those who were left over wear their plainest
liveries; she even thought of arranging to have the Marshalls' ring
answered by a maid instead of a footman.
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