“My dear May, please never ask that good lady here again,” said John Temple, after his father-in-law and his wife had taken their departure; “I really can not stand her.”
“Well, I must say,” remarked Mrs. Churchill to her spouse, as they drove home together after the entertainment was over, “that a more stupid evening I never spent; it seems to me that May can scarcely be called the mistress of her own house, with Mrs. Temple sitting at the head of the table, and that kind of thing. However, we’ve dined there, and the neighbors can’t say we’ve not, and we need not tell them it was anything but pleasant.”
“Well,” answered Mr. Churchill, who was also much disappointed, “I think it is a pity May does not make more of herself. However, Mr. John Temple is my landlord as well as my son-in-law, so we must just make the best of things.”
CHAPTER XLV.
ANOTHER HEIR.
A whole year passed away after May’s arrival at the Hall as John Temple’s wife; a year with its chances and changes, when it became known in the neighborhood that it was hoped an heir was about to be born to Woodlea.
The prospect of this event pleased John Temple greatly, but displeased Mrs. Temple. She did not wish this new and tender tie to draw closer the two she fain would part. But she was, of course, obliged to conceal her feelings.
“But I hope,” she one day said smiling to John Temple, “that when the interesting event comes off that your charming mother-in-law will not take up her abode here?”
John Temple laughed.
“Oh! nonsense,” he said, “May would not care to have her here.”