For my own part, I had vibrated all my life between
Drumble and Cranford, and I thought it was quite possible that all
Mr Peter's stories might be true, although wonderful; but when I
found that, if we swallowed an anecdote of tolerable magnitude one
week, we had the dose considerably increased the next, I began to
have my doubts; especially as I noticed that when his sister was
present the accounts of Indian life were comparatively tame; not
that she knew more than we did, perhaps less. I noticed also that
when the rector came to call, Mr Peter talked in a different way
about the countries he had been in. But I don't think the ladies
in Cranford would have considered him such a wonderful traveller if
they had only heard him talk in the quiet way he did to him. They
liked him the better, indeed, for being what they called "so very
Oriental."
One day, at a select party in his honour, which Miss Pole gave, and
from which, as Mrs Jamieson honoured it with her presence, and had
even offered to send Mr Mulliner to wait, Mr and Mrs Hoggins and
Mrs Fitz-Adam were necessarily--excluded one day at Miss Pole's, Mr
Peter said he was tired of sitting upright against the hard-backed
uneasy chairs, and asked if he might not indulge himself in sitting
cross-legged. Miss Pole's consent was eagerly given, and down he
went with the utmost gravity.
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