and shy, desirous to escape observation, but
willing enough to listen and observe: and, although somewhat out of his
element, he would have been happy enough in his own quiet way, if my
mother could only have let him alone; but in her mistaken kindness, she
would keep persecuting him with her attentions--pressing upon him all
manner of viands, under the notion that he was too bashful to help
himself, and obliging him to shout across the room his monosyllabic
replies to the numerous questions and observations by which she vainly
attempted to draw him into conversation.
Rose informed me that he never would have favoured us with his company
but for the importunities of his sister Jane, who was most anxious to
show Mr. Lawrence that she had at least one brother more gentlemanly and
refined than Robert. That worthy individual she had been equally
solicitous to keep away; but he affirmed that he saw no reason why he
should not enjoy a crack with Markham and the old lady (my mother was not
old, really), and bonny Miss Rose and the parson, as well as the
best;--and he was in the right of it too. So he talked common-place with
my mother and Rose, and discussed parish affairs with the vicar, farming
matters with me, and politics with us both.
Mary Millward was another mute,--not so much tormented with cruel
kindness as Dick Wilson, because she had a certain short, decided way of
answering and refusing, and was supposed to be rather sullen than
diffident. However that might be, she certainly did not give much
pleasure to the company;--nor did she appear to derive much from it.
Eliza told me she had only come because her father insisted upon it,
having taken it into his head that she devoted herself too exclusively to
her household duties, to the neglect of such relaxations and innocent
enjoyments as were proper to her age and sex. She seemed to me to be
good-humoured enough on the whole. Once or twice she was provoked to
laughter by the wit or the merriment of some favoured individual amongst
us; and then I observed she sought the eye of Richard Wilson, who sat
over against her. As he studied with her father, she had some
acquaintance with him, in spite of the retiring habits of both, and I
suppose there was a kind of fellow-feeling established between them.
My Eliza was charming beyond description, coquettish without affectation,
and evidently more desirous to engage my attention than that of all the
room besides. He
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