How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
'Arthur, my dear boy,' said Mr. Meagles, on the evening of the following day, 'Mother and I have been talking this over, and we don't feel comfortable in remaining as we are. [...] We are very much disposed, are Mother and I,' said Mr. Meagles, 'to pack up bags and baggage and go among the Allongers and Marshongers once more. I mean, we are very much disposed to be off, strike right through France into Italy, and see our Pet.'
'And I don't think,' replied Arthur, touched by the motherly anticipation in the bright face of Mrs. Meagles (she must have been very like her daughter, once), 'that you could do better. And if you ask me for my advice, it is that you set off to-morrow.' [...]
'The fact is, besides, Arthur,' said Mr. Meagles, the old cloud coming over his face, 'that my son-in-law is already in debt again, and that I suppose I must clear him again. It may be as well, even on this account, that I should step over there, and look him up in a friendly way. Then again, here's Mother foolishly anxious (and yet naturally too) about Pet's state of health [during pregnancy], and that she should not be left to feel lonesome at the present time. It's undeniably a long way off, Arthur, and a strange place for the poor love under all the circumstances. Let her be as well cared for as any lady in that land, still it is a long way off. Just as Home is Home though it's never so Homely, why you see,' said Mr. Meagles, adding a new version to the proverb, 'Rome is Rome, though it's never so Romely.' (2.9.1-11)
The Meagleses (OK, and the Plornishes) are probably our best example in the novel of a reasonably normal, loving family. Even so, Pet needed to escape from their doting care. Now they're about to follow her to Italy. Ironically, it is his very financial dependence on his father-in-law that makes Gowan dislike Meagles so much and want to break up the warm family feeling.