Of course she
knew Mr Hopgood well, and knew that he was no ordinary man. She knew
also something of Mrs Hopgood and the daughters, and that they were
no ordinary women. She had been heard to say that they were ladies,
and that Mr Hopgood was a gentleman; and she kept up a distant kind
of intimacy with them, always nodded to them whenever she met them,
and every now and then sent them grapes and flowers. She had
observed once or twice to Mrs Tubbs that Mr Hopgood was a remarkable
person, who was quite scientific and therefore did not associate with
the rest of the Fenmarket folk; and Mrs Tubbs was much annoyed,
particularly by a slight emphasis which she thought she detected in
the 'therefore,' for Mr Tubbs had told her that one of the smaller
London brewers, who had only about fifty public-houses, had refused
to meet at dinner a learned French chemist who had written books.
Mrs Martin could not make friends with the Hopgoods, nor enter the
cottage. It would have been a transgression of that infinitely fine
and tortuous line whose inexplicable convolutions mark off what is
forbidden to a society lady. Clearly, however, the Hopgoods could be
requested to co-operate at the 'Crown and Sceptre;' in fact, it would
be impolitic not to put some of the townsfolk on the list of patrons.
So it came about that Mrs Hopgood was included, and that she was made
responsible for the provision of one song and one recitation.
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