"I have heard as much, but her daughters are only the more to be pitied; it is of the youngest but one I have spoken."
"I like it not, I like it not, Frederic! Seldom comes a fair bird from a foul nest. Arthur had better suffer for a month than for a life; he must forget her; 'twill be no great thing for a gay-hearted young man, like him. Promotion must be his mistress, and, in doing his best to attain her, he will forget 'the pale, unripened beauty of the North.'"
"My father wished us both to marry early—more especially myself. I will not think of it till I see poor Arthur settled, for he wished that also; and he has often told me that our family were singular from the constancy of their attachments. Both yourself and him, dear grandpapa, were left young, handsome widowers, with extremely small families, yet you formed no second connection. Aunt Margaretta was only suspected of an attachment, and she has remained true to the sentiment, yet must have had many suitors. I am convinced it will be my own case, should I find an object worthy my affection; and I have no right to place my brother out of the family pale; he may be more rapid in his conclusions, more easily struck, and more ardently excited, but I yet believe he will be true to the family virtue, for such I consider it; we have it on both sides, for my mother was a martyr to her love for my father."
"Your mother was an angel, Frederic," said the
