Millar. Mrs. Millar looked back
assent. Lady Bassett assumed the command, and took off Mary's shawl.
_"Yes,"_ said she to Mrs. Millar. "Now, Mary, be good; it _is_ too
tight."
Thus urged, the idiot contracted herself by a mighty effort, while Lady
Bassett attacked the fastenings, and, with infinite difficulty, they
unhooked three bottom hooks. The fierce burst open that followed, and
the awful chasm, showed what gigantic strength vanity can command, and
how savagely abuse it to maltreat nature.
Lady Bassett loosened the stays too, and a deep sigh of relief told the
truth, which the lying tongue had denied, as it always does whenever
the same question is put.
The shawl was replaced, and comfort gained till they entered the town
of Staveleigh.
Nurse instantly exchanged places with Sir Charles, and took the child
again. He was her banner in all public places.
When they came up to the inn they were greeted with loud hurrahs. It
was market-day. The town was full of Sir Charles's tenants and other
farmers. His return had got wind, and every farmer under fifty had
resolved to ride with him into Huntercombe.
When five or six, all shouting together, intimated this to Sir Charles,
he sent one of his people to order the butchers out to Huntercombe with
joints a score, and then to gallop on with a note to his housekeeper
and butler.
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