Doctor Thorne - Anthony Trollope (e novels to read TXT) 📗

Lady Arabella to the utmost, for, in making the proposition, she could not but seem to be throwing some slight on the house in which the heiress had lived. But when the affair was once opened to Mary, it was astonishing how easy it became.

“Of course,” said Mary, “all the rooms in our house would not hold half the people you are talking about⁠—if they must come.”

Lady Arabella looked so beseechingly, nay, so piteously, that Mary had not another word to say. It was evident that they must all come: the de Courcys to the fifth generation; the Duke of Omnium himself, and others in concatenation accordingly.

“But will your uncle be angry if we have the breakfast up here? He has been so very handsome to Frank, that I wouldn’t make him angry for all the world.”

“If you don’t tell him anything about it, Lady Arabella, he’ll think that it is all done properly. He will never know, if he’s not told, that he ought to give the breakfast, and not you.”

“Won’t he, my dear?” And Lady Arabella looked her admiration for this very talented suggestion. And so that matter was arranged. The doctor never knew, till Mary told him some year or so afterwards, that he had been remiss in any part of his duty.

And who was asked to the wedding? In the first place, we have said that the Duke of Omnium was there. This was, in fact, the one circumstance that made this wedding so superior to any other that had ever taken place in that neighbourhood. The Duke of Omnium never went anywhere; and yet he went to Mary’s wedding! And Mary, when the ceremony was over, absolutely found herself kissed by a duke. “Dearest Mary!” exclaimed Lady Arabella, in her ecstasy of joy, when she saw the honour that was done to her daughter-in-law.

“I hope we shall induce you to come to Gatherum Castle soon,” said the duke to Frank. “I shall be having a few friends there in the autumn. Let me see; I declare, I have not seen you since you were good enough to come to my collection. Ha! ha! ha! It wasn’t bad fun, was it?” Frank was not very cordial with his answer. He had not quite reconciled himself to the difference of his position. When he was treated as one of the “collection” at Gatherum Castle, he had not married money.

It would be vain to enumerate all the de Courcys that were there. There was the earl, looking very gracious, and talking to the squire about the county. And there was Lord Porlock, looking very ungracious, and not talking to anybody about anything. And there was the countess, who for the last week past had done nothing but pat Frank on the back whenever she could catch him. And there were the Ladies Alexandrina, Margaretta, and Selina, smiling at everybody. And the Honourable George, talking in whispers to Frank about his widow⁠—“Not such a catch as yours, you know; but something extremely snug;⁠—and have it all my own way, too, old fellow, or I shan’t come to the scratch.” And the Honourable John prepared to toady Frank about his string of hunters; and the Lady Amelia, by herself, not quite contented with these democratic nuptials⁠—“After all, she is so absolutely nobody; absolutely, absolutely,” she said confidentially to Augusta, shaking her head. But before Lady Amelia had left Greshamsbury, Augusta was quite at a loss to understand how there could be need for so much conversation between her cousin and Mr. Mortimer Gazebee.

And there were many more de Courcys, whom to enumerate would be much too long.

And the bishop of the diocese, and Mrs. Proudie were there. A hint had even been given, that his lordship would himself condescend to perform the ceremony, if this should be wished; but that work had already been anticipated by a very old friend of the Greshams. Archdeacon Grantly, the rector of Plumstead Episcopi, had long since undertaken this part of the business; and the knot was eventually tied by the joint efforts of himself and Mr. Oriel. Mrs. Grantly came with him, and so did Mrs. Grantly’s sister, the new dean’s wife. The dean himself was at the time unfortunately absent at Oxford.

And all the Bakers and the Jacksons were there. The last time they had all met together under the squire’s roof, was on the occasion of Frank’s coming of age. The present gala doings were carried on in a very different spirit. That had been a very poor affair, but this was worthy of the best days of Greshamsbury.

Occasion also had been taken of this happy moment to make up, or rather to get rid of the last shreds of the last feud that had so long separated Dr. Thorne from his own relatives. The Thornes of Ullathorne had made many overtures in a covert way. But our doctor had contrived to reject them. “They would not receive Mary as their cousin,” said he, “and I will go nowhere that she cannot go.” But now all this was altered. Mrs. Gresham would certainly be received in any house in the county. And thus, Mr. Thorne of Ullathorne, an amiable, popular old bachelor, came to the wedding; and so did his maiden sister, Miss Monica Thorne, than whose no kinder heart glowed through all Barsetshire.

“My dear,” said she to Mary, kissing her, and offering her some little tribute, “I am very glad to make your acquaintance; very. It was not her fault,” she added, speaking to herself. “And now that she will be a Gresham, that need not be any longer thought of.” Nevertheless, could Miss Thorne have spoken her inward thoughts out loud, she would have declared, that Frank would have done better to have borne his poverty than marry wealth without blood. But then, there are but few so stanch as Miss Thorne; perhaps none in that county⁠—always excepting Lady Amelia.

And Miss Dunstable, also, was a bridesmaid. “Oh, no” said she, when asked; “you should have them young