George Eliot's Poems.
There is a want of primness in the manners and customs of my characters which a reviewer might take exception to. To be sure he might with effect criticise their making up a pool on Sunday. But the fact was that nobody remembered it to be Sunday until Jack wanted to collect his winnings after dinner. At this, Mrs. Dusenall held up her hands in high disapproval. While out in the lake, in the worst part of the sea, she had commenced to read her Bible, and had felt thankful to arrive in shelter. Consequently she remembered the day.
"Surely, Charley, you have not been gambling on Sunday?" said she reprovingly.
The girls looked guilty, with an expression of "Oh, haven't we been bad?" on their faces.
Rankin endeavored to relieve the situation by explaining in many words that the whole thing was a mere matter of form, and no more than an expression of opinion as to the time the boat would reach the harbor, because no money was put up—in fact, as the arrangement was made on Sunday, the whole thing was illegal, and no money ever would be put up, etc.
Jack kicked him under the table for arguing away his winnings, and Margaret quoted at him:
"His tongue
Dropped manna, and could make the worse appear
The better reason, to perplex and dash
Maturest counsels."
"Good," said Geoffrey. "Give him the rest of it, Miss Margaret. Rub it in well."
Margaret continued, and with mirthful eyes declaimed at Maurice: