They returned to Pentonville, settled their accounts, packed their
belongings, and by evening were able to sit down to a dinner cooked
by their own servant--under Adela's supervision. Mutimer purchased a
couple of bottles of claret on the way home, that the first evening
might be wholly cheerful. Of a sudden he had become a new man; the
sullenness had passed, and he walked from room to room with much the
same air of lofty satisfaction as when he first surveyed the
interior of Wanley Manor. He made a show of reading in the hour
before dinner, but could not keep still for more than a few minutes
at a time; he wanted to handle the furniture, to survey the prospect
from the windows, to walk out into the road and take a general view
of the house. When their meal had begun, and the servant, instructed
to wait at table, chanced to be out of the room, he remarked:
'We'll begin, of course, to dine at the proper time again. It's far
better, don't you think so?'
'Yes, I think so.'
'And, by-the-by, you'll see that Mary has a cap.'
Adela smiled.
'Yes, I'll see she has.'
Mary herself entered. Some impulse she did not quite understand led
Adela to look at the girl in her yet capless condition. She said
something which would require Mary to answer, and found herself
wondering at the submissive tone, the repeated 'Mum.
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