Tea was a long time in progress; all the guests gabbled as their hostess had expected they would. Mr. Helstone, being in excellent spirits--when, indeed, was he ever otherwise in society, attractive female society? it being only with the one lady of his own family that he maintained a grim taciturnity--kept up a brilliant flow of easy prattle with his right-hand and left-hand neighbours, and even with his _vis--vis_, Miss Mary; though, as Mary was the most sensible, the least coquettish, of the three, to her the elderly widower was the least attentive. At heart he could not abide sense in women. He liked to see them as silly, as light-headed, as vain, as open to ridicule as possible, because they were then in reality what he held them to be, and wished them to be--inferior, toys to play with, to amuse a vacant hour, and to be thrown away.
Hannah was his favourite. Harriet, though beautiful, egotistical, and self-satisfied, was not quite weak enough for him. She had some genuine self-respect amidst much false pride, and if she did not talk like an oracle, neither would she babble like one crazy; she would not permit herself to be treated quite as a doll, a child, a plaything; she expected to be bent to like a queen.

Tea was a long time in progress; the guests gabbled as their hostess had expected. Mr. Helstone kept up a brilliant flow of easy prattle with his neighbours, and even with Miss Mary; though, as Mary was the most sensible and least coquettish of the three, to her the rector was the least attentive. He could not abide sense in women. He liked to see them as silly, as light-headed, as vain, as open to ridicule as possible, because that was what he held them to be, and wished them to be - inferior, toys to play with, to amuse a vacant hour, and to be thrown away.
Hannah was his favourite. Harriet, though beautiful, egotistical, and self-satisfied, was not quite weak enough for him. She had some genuine self-respect amidst much false pride, and she did not babble like one crazy; she would not permit herself to be treated as a doll or a child; she expected to be bent to like a queen.
