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The
horror
of
Pitt
Crawley
may
be
imagined
,
as
these
reports
of
his
father
's
dotage
reached
the
most
exemplary
and
correct
of
gentlemen
.
He
trembled
daily
lest
he
should
hear
that
the
Ribbons
was
proclaimed
his
second
legal
mother-in-law
.
After
that
first
and
last
visit
,
his
father
's
name
was
never
mentioned
in
Pitt
's
polite
and
genteel
establishment
.
It
was
the
skeleton
in
his
house
,
and
all
the
family
walked
by
it
in
terror
and
silence
.
The
Countess
Southdown
kept
on
dropping
per
coach
at
the
lodge-gate
the
most
exciting
tracts
,
tracts
which
ought
to
frighten
the
hair
off
your
head
.
Mrs.
Bute
at
the
parsonage
nightly
looked
out
to
see
if
the
sky
was
red
over
the
elms
behind
which
the
Hall
stood
,
and
the
mansion
was
on
fire
.
Sir
G.
Wapshot
and
Sir
H.
Fuddlestone
,
old
friends
of
the
house
,
would
n't
sit
on
the
bench
with
Sir
Pitt
at
Quarter
Sessions
,
and
cut
him
dead
in
the
High
Street
of
Southampton
,
where
the
reprobate
stood
offering
his
dirty
old
hands
to
them
.
Nothing
had
any
effect
upon
him
;
he
put
his
hands
into
his
pockets
,
and
burst
out
laughing
,
as
he
scrambled
into
his
carriage
and
four
;
he
used
to
burst
out
laughing
at
Lady
Southdown
's
tracts
;
and
he
laughed
at
his
sons
,
and
at
the
world
,
and
at
the
Ribbons
when
she
was
angry
,
which
was
not
seldom
.
Miss
Horrocks
was
installed
as
housekeeper
at
Queen
's
Crawley
,
and
ruled
all
the
domestics
there
with
great
majesty
and
rigour
.
All
the
servants
were
instructed
to
address
her
as
"
Mum
,
"
or
"
Madam
"
--
and
there
was
one
little
maid
,
on
her
promotion
,
who
persisted
in
calling
her
"
My
Lady
,
"
without
any
rebuke
on
the
part
of
the
housekeeper
.
"
There
has
been
better
ladies
,
and
there
has
been
worser
,
Hester
,
"
was
Miss
Horrocks
'
reply
to
this
compliment
of
her
inferior
;
so
she
ruled
,
having
supreme
power
over
all
except
her
father
,
whom
,
however
,
she
treated
with
considerable
haughtiness
,
warning
him
not
to
be
too
familiar
in
his
behaviour
to
one
"
as
was
to
be
a
Baronet
's
lady
.
"
Indeed
,
she
rehearsed
that
exalted
part
in
life
with
great
satisfaction
to
herself
,
and
to
the
amusement
of
old
Sir
Pitt
,
who
chuckled
at
her
airs
and
graces
,
and
would
laugh
by
the
hour
together
at
her
assumptions
of
dignity
and
imitations
of
genteel
life
.
He
swore
it
was
as
good
as
a
play
to
see
her
in
the
character
of
a
fine
dame
,
and
he
made
her
put
on
one
of
the
first
Lady
Crawley
's
court-dresses
,
swearing
(
entirely
to
Miss
Horrocks
'
own
concurrence
)
that
the
dress
became
her
prodigiously
,
and
threatening
to
drive
her
off
that
very
instant
to
Court
in
a
coach-and-four
.
She
had
the
ransacking
of
the
wardrobes
of
the
two
defunct
ladies
,
and
cut
and
hacked
their
posthumous
finery
so
as
to
suit
her
own
tastes
and
figure
.
And
she
would
have
liked
to
take
possession
of
their
jewels
and
trinkets
too
;
but
the
old
Baronet
had
locked
them
away
in
his
private
cabinet
;
nor
could
she
coax
or
wheedle
him
out
of
the
keys
.
And
it
is
a
fact
,
that
some
time
after
she
left
Queen
's
Crawley
a
copy-book
belonging
to
this
lady
was
discovered
,
which
showed
that
she
had
taken
great
pains
in
private
to
learn
the
art
of
writing
in
general
,
and
especially
of
writing
her
own
name
as
Lady
Crawley
,
Lady
Betsy
Horrocks
,
Lady
Elizabeth
Crawley
,
&
c.
Though
the
good
people
of
the
Parsonage
never
went
to
the
Hall
and
shunned
the
horrid
old
dotard
its
owner
,
yet
they
kept
a
strict
knowledge
of
all
that
happened
there
,
and
were
looking
out
every
day
for
the
catastrophe
for
which
Miss
Horrocks
was
also
eager
.
But
Fate
intervened
enviously
and
prevented
her
from
receiving
the
reward
due
to
such
immaculate
love
and
virtue
.
One
day
the
Baronet
surprised
"
her
ladyship
,
"
as
he
jocularly
called
her
,
seated
at
that
old
and
tuneless
piano
in
the
drawing-room
,
which
had
scarcely
been
touched
since
Becky
Sharp
played
quadrilles
upon
it
--
seated
at
the
piano
with
the
utmost
gravity
and
squalling
to
the
best
of
her
power
in
imitation
of
the
music
which
she
had
sometimes
heard
.
The
little
kitchen-maid
on
her
promotion
was
standing
at
her
mistress
's
side
,
quite
delighted
during
the
operation
,
and
wagging
her
head
up
and
down
and
crying
,
"
Lor
,
Mum
,
'
tis
bittiful
"
--
just
like
a
genteel
sycophant
in
a
real
drawing-room
.
This
incident
made
the
old
Baronet
roar
with
laughter
,
as
usual
.
He
narrated
the
circumstance
a
dozen
times
to
Horrocks
in
the
course
of
the
evening
,
and
greatly
to
the
discomfiture
of
Miss
Horrocks
.
He
thrummed
on
the
table
as
if
it
had
been
a
musical
instrument
,
and
squalled
in
imitation
of
her
manner
of
singing
.
He
vowed
that
such
a
beautiful
voice
ought
to
be
cultivated
and
declared
she
ought
to
have
singing-masters
,
in
which
proposals
she
saw
nothing
ridiculous
.
He
was
in
great
spirits
that
night
,
and
drank
with
his
friend
and
butler
an
extraordinary
quantity
of
rum-and-water
--
at
a
very
late
hour
the
faithful
friend
and
domestic
conducted
his
master
to
his
bedroom
.
Half
an
hour
afterwards
there
was
a
great
hurry
and
bustle
in
the
house
.
Lights
went
about
from
window
to
window
in
the
lonely
desolate
old
Hall
,
whereof
but
two
or
three
rooms
were
ordinarily
occupied
by
its
owner
.
Presently
,
a
boy
on
a
pony
went
galloping
off
to
Mudbury
,
to
the
Doctor
's
house
there
.
And
in
another
hour
(
by
which
fact
we
ascertain
how
carefully
the
excellent
Mrs.
Bute
Crawley
had
always
kept
up
an
understanding
with
the
great
house
)
,
that
lady
in
her
clogs
and
calash
,
the
Reverend
Bute
Crawley
,
and
James
Crawley
,
her
son
,
had
walked
over
from
the
Rectory
through
the
park
,
and
had
entered
the
mansion
by
the
open
hall-door
.
They
passed
through
the
hall
and
the
small
oak
parlour
,
on
the
table
of
which
stood
the
three
tumblers
and
the
empty
rum-bottle
which
had
served
for
Sir
Pitt
's
carouse
,
and
through
that
apartment
into
Sir
Pitt
's
study
,
where
they
found
Miss
Horrocks
,
of
the
guilty
ribbons
,
with
a
wild
air
,
trying
at
the
presses
and
escritoires
with
a
bunch
of
keys
.
She
dropped
them
with
a
scream
of
terror
,
as
little
Mrs.
Bute
's
eyes
flashed
out
at
her
from
under
her
black
calash
.
