FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  
not? Above all, she is by no means partial to other women, whether they have stepped over the line, or kept within it. She will hate you, Ellen, depend upon it, with an innocent kind of hatred: she will do you no harm, for she is kind-hearted in reality; only it will be nuts to her if anybody says that Miss Middleton is not near so pretty as they had expected; and she will try to put you down whenever you open your mouth; but don't be put down, and then you will remain mistress of the field, for she will grow so fidgetty, (not cross, for she is, in fact, good-tempered,) that she will lose her self-possession, and then all will be over with her." "I have not the slightest wish to enter the lists with her. But now, tell me something of the men who are here." "That will be quickly done;--Sir Charles is a fool; Mr. Ernsley is a prig; and Mr. Farnley has a broad kind of humour, and a talent for mimicry, but he is coarse and unrefined, which, by the way, is, perhaps, the reason that his daughter thinks it necessary to be so painfully the reverse. Mr. Brandon, your aunt's brother-in-law, is an agreeable man. Mr. Manby is a lout." "And Sir Edmund Ardern?" I inquired. "Oh, as to Sir Edmund Ardern, I entreat you, on the same principle on which pastry-cooks cram their apprentices during the first few days, to talk to him incessantly. Let him sit by you to-morrow at breakfast, at luncheon, at dinner, walk with him, and ride with him; I shall not come near you, in order that he may have full scope for his fascinating powers; you shall be fascinated till you cry for mercy." I laughed, but secretly thought that something of the severity of his satire proceeded from the fact, that Sir Edmund was the only handsome and pleasing person in the house, and I did not feel inclined to take entirely for granted, that Henry's judgment of him was correct. Our _tete-a-tete_ was soon interrupted by the entrance of Mrs. Ernsley, and the arrival of tea. Mrs. Ernsley threw herself into a large arm-chair, flung her bonnet and shawl on the opposite couch, and then began arranging her hair. "You look tired, Mrs. Ernsley," said Henry. "To death," she answered. "Dear Mrs. Brandon has been wondering whether the stars are inhabited or not. It is not fair to make one stretch out one's mind so far." "What did Sir Edmund pronounce on the subject?" inquired Henry. "That there was much to be said on both sides of the question. I left th
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95  
96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Ernsley
 

Edmund

 

Brandon

 
Ardern
 
inquired
 
satire
 

proceeded

 

pleasing

 

handsome

 

person


dinner
 
luncheon
 

breakfast

 

morrow

 

incessantly

 

laughed

 

secretly

 

thought

 

fascinated

 

inclined


fascinating
 

powers

 

severity

 
inhabited
 

stretch

 
wondering
 
answered
 

question

 

pronounce

 

subject


arrival

 

entrance

 
interrupted
 
granted
 

judgment

 
correct
 

arranging

 

opposite

 

bonnet

 

painfully


expected

 

Middleton

 
pretty
 

remain

 
mistress
 
possession
 

slightest

 

tempered

 
fidgetty
 

stepped