第57章 THE VICAR’S FAMILY USE ART(1)

Whatever might have been Sophia‘s sensations，the rest of the family was easily consoled for Mr.Burchell’s absence by the company of our landlord，whose visits now became more frequent，and longer.Though he had been disappointed in procuring my daughters the amusements of the town，as he designed，he took every opportunity of supplying them with those little recreations which our retirement would admit of.He usually came in the morning；and while my son and I followed our occupations abroad，he sat with the family at home，and amused them by describing the town，with every part of which he was particularly acquainted.He could repeat all the observations that were retailed in the atmosphere of the playhouses，and had all the good things of the high wits by rote，long before they made their way into the jestbooks.The intervals between conversation were employed in teaching my daughters piquet，or sometimes in setting my two little ones to box，to make them sharp ，as he called it；but the hopes of having him for a soninlaw，in some measure blinded us to all his imperfections.It must be owned that my wife laid a thousand schemes to entrap him；or，to speak it more tenderly，used every art to magnify the merit of her daughter.If the cakes at tea ate short and crisp，they were made by Olivia；if the gooseberry wine was well knit，the gooseberries were ofher gathering；it was her fingers that gave the pickles their peculiar green；and in the composition of a pudding，it was her judgment that mixed the ingredients.Then the poor woman would sometimes tell the Squire that she thought him and Olivia extremely of a size，and would bid both stand up to see which was tallest.These instances of cunning，which she thought impenetrable，yet which ever ybody saw through，were ver y pleasing to our benefactor，who gave every day some new proofs of his passion，which，though they had not risen to proposals of marriage，yet we thought fell but little short of it；and his slowness was attributed sometimes to native bashfulness，and sometimes to his fear of offending his uncle.An occurrence，however，which happened soon after，put it beyond a doubt that he designed to become one of our family；my wife even regarded it as an absolute promise.