Der Praefekt

thought that his voice was too often listened to at
    Plumstead Episcopi, and evidently feared that, as he grew up, he
    would have more weight in the house than either of them; there was,
    therefore, a sort of agreement among them to put young Soapy down.
    This, however, was not so easy to be done; Samuel, though young, was
    sharp; he could not assume the stiff decorum of Charles James, nor
    could he fight like Henry; but he was a perfect master of his own
    weapons, and contrived, in the teeth of both of them, to hold the
    place which he had assumed.  Henry declared that he was a false,
    cunning creature; and Charles James, though he always spoke of him as
    his dear brother Samuel, was not slow to say a word against him when
    Gelegenheit bot. To speak the truth, Samuel was a cunning boy,
    and those even who loved him best could not but own that for one so
    young, he was too adroit in choosing his words, and too skilled in
    modulating his voice.
     
    The two little girls Florinda and Grizzel were nice little girls
    enough, but they did not possess the strong sterling qualities of
    their brothers; their voices were not often heard at Plumstead
    Episcopi; they were bashful and timid by nature, slow to speak before
    company even when asked to do so; and though they looked very nice in
    their clean white muslin frocks and pink sashes, they were but little
    noticed by the archdeacon’s visitors.
     
    Whatever of submissive humility may have appeared in the gait and
    visage of the archdeacon during his colloquy with his wife in the
    sanctum of their dressing-rooms was dispelled as he entered his
    breakfast-parlour with erect head and powerful step. In Gegenwart
    of a third person he assumed the lord and master; and that wise and
    talented lady too well knew the man to whom her lot for life was
    bound, to stretch her authority beyond the point at which it would be
    borne.  Strangers at Plumstead Episcopi, when they saw the imperious
    brow with which he commanded silence from the large circle of
    visitors, children, and servants who came together in the morning to
    hear him read the word of God, and watched how meekly that wife seated
    herself behind her basket of keys with a little girl on each side,
    as she caught that commanding glance; strangers, I say, seeing this,
    could little guess that some fifteen minutes since she had stoutly
    held her ground against him, hardly allowing him to open his mouth in
    his own defence. But such is the tact and talent of women!
     
    And now let us observe the well-furnished breakfast-parlour at
    Plumstead Episcopi, and the comfortable air of all the belongings of
    the rectory.  Comfortable they certainly were, but neither gorgeous
    nor even grand; indeed, considering the money that had been spent
    there, the eye and taste might have been better served; there was an
    air of heaviness about the rooms which might have been avoided without
    any sacrifice of propriety; colours might have been better chosen and
    lights more perfectly diffused; but perhaps in doing so the thorough
    clerical aspect of the whole might have been somewhat marred; at any
    rate, it was not without ample consideration that those thick, dark,
    costly carpets were put down; those embossed, but sombre papers hung
    up; those heavy curtains draped so as to half exclude the light of
    the sun: nor were these old-fashioned chairs, bought at a price far
    exceeding that now given for more modern goods, without a purpose.
    The breakfast-service on the table was equally costly and equally
    plain; the apparent object had been to spend money without obtaining
    brilliancy or splendour.  The urn was of thick and solid silver, as
    were also the tea-pot, coffee-pot, cream-ewer, and sugar-bowl; the
    cups were old, dim dragon china, worth about a pound a piece, but very
    despicable in the eyes of the uninitiated.  The silver forks were so
    heavy as to be disagreeable to the hand, and the bread-basket was of a
    weight really formidable to any but robust persons.  The tea consumed
    was the very best, the coffee the very blackest, the cream the
    very thickest; there was dry toast and buttered toast, muffins and
    crumpets; hot bread and cold bread, white bread and brown bread,
    home-made bread and bakers’ bread, wheaten bread and oaten bread; and
    if there be other breads than these, they were there; there were eggs
    in napkins, and crispy bits of bacon under silver covers; and there
    were little fishes in a little box, and devilled