CHAPTER XI.
LEAVING BERRIE DOWN.
The programme of domestic arrangements which Arthur Dudley had so ingeniously sketched out, as he travelled from London to Palinsbridge, was, like many other programmes, destined to undergo much revision before being presented to the public.
In the first place, Mrs. Piggott’s prudence, or possibly, even her morality, objected to being left alone with Ned at Berrie Down in charge of that establishment. A house without a mistress had always been Mrs. Piggott’s special abhorrence,—a house where things, as she said, “ran wild.”
Further, Mrs. Dudley most earnestly desired that if her lot were to be cast in town, it should not be cast there in company with strange servants; and, after much anxious discussion, it was accordingly agreed that Susan should take Mrs. Piggott’s position, and a new housemaid be engaged to fill Jane’s place, while Prissy and Jane and Mrs. Piggott accompanied the family to London. As an almost necessary consequence of this arrangement, it was decided that Agnes and Laura should remain at the Hollow; Agnes willingly undertaking to “see to things” as much as possible, and write Heather an account of the farm proceedings every week.
Ned, of course, was to take charge of out-door matters, as hitherto; and Lucy and Cuthbert were to proceed to town.
It seemed to Mr. Black, when he heard these various decisions, that the whole family must suddenly have taken leave of their senses.
“Why the deuce you could not have put in a care-taker, and sold the cows, and got rid of all the poultry, and let that Ned fellow see to the ploughing and sowing, passes my comprehension. The girls will never get married down there; why, I don’t suppose they see a man from one year’s end to another!”
“There is one of them coming up, remember,” said Arthur Dudley, in a tone of apology, as though some excuse were necessary for not putting his sisters in the way of matrimonial chances; “and Heather and they settled it, somehow, amongst them. It appeared to me rather a good arrangement.”
“Well, it may be, if you wish to have them on your hands for ever,” answered Mr. Black; at which remark Arthur bit his lip.
He did not like being interfered with, or advised overmuch. If he wished his sisters to stay at Berrie Down, what business was it of Mr. Black’s whether they remained there or not? He had maintained them when no other member of the family could or would have done so, and he did not see that any person had a right to make comments on what he did or left undone.