ing their gloss by being produced whenever the friends wanted
something to talk about. Moreover, Emma, who was now within a few months
of twenty-one, was seized with a vehement desire to extort her mother's
consent to put them at once in execution, and used to startle Violet
by pouring out lamentations over her promise, as if it was a cruel
thraldom. Violet argued that the scheme was likely to be much better
weighed by taking time to think.

'It has been the thought of my life! Besides, I have Theresa's judgment;
and, oh! Violet, mamma means it well, I know; but she does not know what
she asks of me! Think, think if I should die in the guilt of sacrilege!'

'Really, Emma, you should not say such dreadful things. It is not your
doing.'

'No; but I reap the benefit of it. My grandfather bought it. Oh! if it
should bring a curse with it!'

'Well, but, Emma, I should think, even if it be wrong to hold it, that
cannot be your fault yet. You mean to restore it; and surely it must
be better to keep it as yet, than to act directly against your mother's
wishes.'

'I don't mean to act against her wishes; but if she would only wish
otherwise!'

'Perhaps it is the best preparation to be obliged to wait patiently.'

'If it was for any good reason; but I know it is only because it would
better suit mamma's old English notions to see me go and marry in an
ordinary way, like any commonplace woman, as Theresa says. Ah! you would
like it too, Violet. It is of no use talking to you! As Theresa says,
the English domestic mind has but one type of goodness.'

Violet did not like to hear her dear Lady Elizabeth contemned; but she
had no ready answer, and humbly resigned herself to Emma's belief that
she was less able to enter into her feelings than that most superior
woman, Theresa Marstone.

CHAPTER 15

Give unto me, made lowly wise,
The spirit of self-sacrifice.

When Arthur went with his regiment to Windsor, the ladies intended to
spend their evenings at home, a rule which had many exceptions, although
Violet was so liable to suffer from late hours and crowded rooms, that
Lady Elizabeth begged her to abstain from parties, and offered more than
once to take charge of Theodora; but the reply always was that they went
out very little, and that this once it would not hurt her.

The truth was that Theodora had expressed a decided aversion to going
out with the Brandons. 'Lady Elizabeth sits down in the most st