midday
my dear , ' said her husband , ` can not you let people be judges of their own affairs ? ' It was what he had said on the like occasions for the last thirty years ; but Mrs. Calcott was as wise as ever in other folks ' matters . The fine lady-wife had meanwhile been arranging a little surprise for her husband . She was too composed to harass herself at his not returning at midday , she knew him and Kitty to be quite capable of taking care of each other , and could imagine him detained by parish work , and disposing of the little maiden with Betty Gervas , or some other Ormersfield friend , but she had thought him looking fagged and worried , she feared his being as tired as he had been on the Sunday , and she could not bear that he should drink tea uncomfortably in the study , tormented by the children . So she had repaired to the parlour , and Miss Mercy , after many remonstrances , had settled her there ; and when the good little lady had gone home to her sister 's tea , Isabel lay on the sofa , wrapped in her large soft shawl , languidly attempting a little work , and feeling the room dreary , and herself very weak , and forlorn , and desponding , as she thought of James 's haggard face , and the fresh anxieties that would be entailed on him if she should become sickly and ailing . The tear gathered on her eyelash as she said to herself , ` I would not exert myself when I could ; perhaps now I can not , when I would give worlds to lighten one of his cares ! ' And then she saw one little bit of furniture standing awry , in the manner that used so often to worry his fastidious eye ; and , in the spirit of doing anything to please him , she moved across the room to rectify it , and then sat down in the large easy chair , wearied by the slight exertion , and becoming even more depressed and hopeless ; ` though , ' as she told herself , ` all is sure to be ordered well .