Sketches by Boz | Page 7

willingly would we conceal the fact, that even thirteen years ago the
Miss Willises were far from juvenile. Our duty as faithful parochial
chroniclers, however, is paramount to every other consideration, and

we are bound to state, that thirteen years since, the authorities in
matrimonial cases, considered the youngest Miss Willis in a very
precarious state, while the eldest sister was positively given over, as
being far beyond all human hope. Well, the Miss Willises took a lease
of the house; it was fresh painted and papered from top to bottom: the
paint inside was all wainscoted, the marble all cleaned, the old grates
taken down, and register-stoves, you could see to dress by, put up; four
trees were planted in the back garden, several small baskets of gravel
sprinkled over the front one, vans of elegant furniture arrived, spring
blinds were fitted to the windows, carpenters who had been employed
in the various preparations, alterations, and repairs, made confidential
statements to the different maid-servants in the row, relative to the
magnificent scale on which the Miss Willises were commencing; the
maid-servants told their 'Missises,' the Missises told their friends, and
vague rumours were circulated throughout the parish, that No. 25, in
Gordon-place, had been taken by four maiden ladies of immense
property.
At last, the Miss Willises moved in; and then the 'calling' began. The
house was the perfection of neatness--so were the four Miss Willises.
Everything was formal, stiff, and cold--so were the four Miss Willises.
Not a single chair of the whole set was ever seen out of its place--not a
single Miss Willis of the whole four was ever seen out of hers. There
they always sat, in the same places, doing precisely the same things at
the same hour. The eldest Miss Willis used to knit, the second to draw,
the two others to play duets on the piano. They seemed to have no
separate existence, but to have made up their minds just to winter
through life together. They were three long graces in drapery, with the
addition, like a school-dinner, of another long grace afterwards--the
three fates with another sister--the Siamese twins multiplied by two.
The eldest Miss Willis grew bilious--the four Miss Willises grew
bilious immediately. The eldest Miss Willis grew ill-tempered and
religious--the four Miss Willises were ill-tempered and religious
directly. Whatever the eldest did, the others did, and whatever anybody
else did, they all disapproved of; and thus they vegetated- -living in
Polar harmony among themselves, and, as they sometimes went out, or
saw company 'in a quiet-way' at home, occasionally icing the

neighbours. Three years passed over in this way, when an unlooked for
and extraordinary phenomenon occurred. The Miss Willises showed
symptoms of summer, the frost gradually broke up; a complete thaw
took place. Was it possible? one of the four Miss Willises was going to
be married!
Now, where on earth the husband came from, by what feelings the poor
man could have been actuated, or by what process of reasoning the four
Miss Willises succeeded in persuading themselves that it was possible
for a man to marry one of them, without marrying them all, are
questions too profound for us to resolve: certain it is, however, that the
visits of Mr. Robinson (a gentleman in a public office, with a good
salary and a little property of his own, besides) were received--that the
four Miss Willises were courted in due form by the said Mr
Robinson--that the neighbours were perfectly frantic in their anxiety to
discover which of the four Miss Willises was the fortunate fair, and that
the difficulty they experienced in solving the problem was not at all
lessened by the announcement of the eldest Miss Willis,--'WE are
going to marry Mr. Robinson.'
It was very extraordinary. They were so completely identified, the one
with the other, that the curiosity of the whole row--even of the old lady
herself--was roused almost beyond endurance. The subject was
discussed at every little card-table and tea-drinking. The old gentleman
of silk-worm notoriety did not hesitate to express his decided opinion
that Mr. Robinson was of Eastern descent, and contemplated marrying
the whole family at once; and the row, generally, shook their heads
with considerable gravity, and declared the business to be very
mysterious. They hoped it might all end well;--it certainly had a very
singular appearance, but still it would be uncharitable to express any
opinion without good grounds to go upon, and certainly the Miss
Willises were QUITE old enough to judge for themselves, and to be
sure people ought to know their own business best, and so forth.
At last, one fine morning, at a quarter before eight o'clock, A.M., two
glass-coaches drove up to the Miss Willises' door, at which Mr.
Robinson had arrived in a