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500 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
her ; with his great feet and hands tumbled over one of our armchairs.
And the music, with its solemn cheer, makes us all very
happy and kind-hearted, and ennobles us somehow as we listen.
And my wife wears her benedictory look whenever she turns
towards these young people. She has worked herself up to the
opinion that yonder couple ought to marry. She can give chapter
and verse for her belief. To doubt about the matter at all is
wicked according to her notions. And there arc certain points
upon which, I humbly own, that I don't dare to argue with her.
When the women of the house have settled a matter, is there
much use in man's resistance? If my harem orders that I shall
wear a yellow coat and pink trousers, I know that, before three
months are over, I shall be walking about in rose-tendre and canarycoloured
garments. It is the perseverance which conquers, the
daily return to the object desired. Take my advice, my dear sir,
when you see your womankind resolute about a matter, give up at
once, and have a quiet life. Perhaps to one of these evening
entertainments, where Miss Baynes played the piano, as she did
very pleasantly, and Mr. Philip's great clumsy fist turned the
leaves, little Mrs. Brandon would come tripping in, and as she
surveyed the young couple, her remark would be, " Did you ever
see a better suited couple ? When I came home from chambers,
and passed the dining-room door, my eldest daughter with a knowing
face would bar the way and say, " You mustn't go in there,
papa ! Miss Grigsby is there, and Master Philip is not to be disturbed
at his lessons !" Mrs. Mugford had begun to arrange
marriages between her young people and ours from the very first
day she saw us ; and Mrs. M.'s ch. filly Toddles, rising two years,
and our three-year-old colt Billyboy, were rehearsing in the nursery
the endless little comedy which the grown-up young persons were
performing in the drawing-room.
With the greatest frankness Mrs. Mugford gave her opinion that
Philip, with four or five hundred a year, would be no better than a
sneak if he delayed to marry. How much had she and Mugford
when they married, she would like to know ? "Emily Street,
Pentonville, was where we had apartments," she remarked ; " we
were pinched sometimes; but we owed nothing: and our housekeeping
books I can show you." I believe Mrs. M. actually
brought these dingy relics of her honeymoon for my wife's inspection.
I tell you, my house was peopled with these friends of matrimony.
Flies were for ever in requisition, and our boys were very sulky at
having to sit for an hour at Shoolbred's, while certain ladies
lingered there over blankets, tablecloths, and what not. Once I
found my wife and Charlotte flitting about Wardour Street, the