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It must, no doubt, have been the case, that the same train
of circumstances which had produced Mr Gibson's visit to the Close,
produced also the scene in question. It was suggested by some who were
attending closely to the matter that Mr Gibson had already come to
repent his engagement with Camilla French; and, indeed, there were
those who pretended to believe that he was induced, by the prospect of
Miss Stanbury's demise, to transfer his allegiance yet again, and to
bestow his hand upon Dorothy at last. There were many in the city who
could never be persuaded that Dorothy had refused him, these being, for
the most part, ladies in whose estimation the value of a husband was
counted so great, and a beneficed clergyman so valuable among suitors,
that it was to their thinking impossible that Dorothy Stanbury should
in her sound senses have rejected such an offer. 'I don't believe a bit
of it,' said Mrs Crumbie to Mrs Apjohn; 'is it likely?' The ears of all
the French family were keenly alive to rumours, and to rumours of
rumours.


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