see Percy. He has rigid notions; he
always avoids people who seek much after fashion and amusement, and (I
must say it) he will not begin an acquaintance while you go on in this
wild way.'

'So!' exclaimed Georgina. 'It is a new thing for the gentlemen to be
particular and fastidious! I wonder what harm he thinks I should do him!
But I see how it is: he means to take you away, turn you against me, the
only creature in this world that ever cared for me. Are not you come to
tell me he forbids you ever to come near me!'

'No, no; he does not, and if he did, would I listen?'

'No, don't, don't displease him on my account,' cried Mrs. Finch. 'Go
and be happy with him; I am not worth caring for, or vexing yourself
about!'

The tears stood on her burning cheeks, and Theodora eagerly replied,
'Have no fancies about me. Nothing shall ever make me give up my oldest
friend. You ought to know me better than to think I would.'

'You are so unlike those I live with,' said Georgina sadly, as an excuse
for the distrust. 'Oh, you don't know what I have gone through, or you
would pity me. You are the only thing that has not failed me. There is
Jane, with her smooth tongue and universal obligingness, she is the most
selfish creature in existence--her heart would go into a nutshell!
One grain of sympathy, and I would never have married. It was all her
doing--she wanted luxuries! O Theodora, if I had but been near you!'

'Hush, Georgina, this is no talk for a wife,' said Theodora, severely.

'I thought you pitied me!'

'I do, indeed I do; but I cannot let you talk in that way.'

'I never do so: no one else would care to hear me.'

'Now listen to me, Georgina. You say you rely on me as you do on no one
else; will you hear me tell you the only way to be happy yourself--'

'That is past,' she murmured.

'Or to stand well in the opinion of others! I am putting it on low
grounds.'

'I know what you are going to say--Go and live in the country, and set
up a charity-school.'

'I say no such thing. I only ask you to be cautious in your manners, to
make Mr. Finch of more importance, and not to let yourself be followed
by your cousin--'

Again Georgina burst into her 'thorn crackling' laugh. 'Poor Mark! I
thought that was coming. People will treat him as if he was a dragon!'

'I know you mean no harm,' repeated Theodora; 'but it cannot be right to
allow any occasion for observations.'

'Now, Theodora, hear me. I dare say Jane ha