It was in
that room that all the interviews of Mrs Roper's establishment had
their existence. A special room for interviews is necessary in all
households of a mixed nature. If a man lives alone with his wife,
he can have his interviews where he pleases. Sons and daughters,
even when they are grown up, hardly create the necessity of an
interview-chamber, though some such need may be felt if the daughters
are marriageable and independent in their natures. But when the
family becomes more complicated than this, if an extra young man be
introduced, or an aunt comes into residence, or grown up children
by a former wife interfere with the domestic simplicity, then such
accommodation becomes quite indispensable. No woman would think of
taking in lodgers without such a room; and this room there was at Mrs
Roper's, very small and dingy, but still sufficient,--just behind
the dining parlour and opposite to the kitchen stairs. Hither, after
dinner, Amelia was summoned. She had just seated herself between Mrs
Lupex and Miss Spruce, ready to do battle with the former because she
would stay, and with the latter because she would go, when she was
called out by the servant girl.
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