ocence--one full of reasoning,
the other of unreasoning adoration!'
'I see it!' suddenly exclaimed Mrs. Edmonstone; 'I see what you are like
in one of your looks, not by any means, in all--it is to the larger of
those two angels.'
'Very seldom, I should guess,' said Guy; and sinking his voice, as if
he was communicating a most painful fact, he added, 'My real likeness
is old Sir Hugh's portrait at home. But what were we saying? Oh! about
Philip. How nice those stories were of Mrs. Deane's.'
'She is very fond of him.'
'To have won so much esteem and admiration, already from strangers, with
no prejudice in his favour.--It must be entirely his own doing; and well
it may! Every time one hears of him, something comes out to make
him seem more admirable. You are laughing at me, and I own it is
presumptuous to praise; but I did not mean to praise, only to admire.'
'I like very much to hear my nephew praised; I was only smiling at your
enthusiastic way.'
'I only wonder I am not more enthusiastic,' said Guy. 'I suppose it is
his plain good sense that drives away that sort of feeling, for he is
as near heroism in the way of self-sacrifice as a man can be in these
days.'
'Poor Philip! if disappointment can make a hero, it has fallen to his
share. Ah! Guy, you are brightening and looking like one of my young
ladies in hopes of a tale of true love crossed, but it was only love of
a sister.'
'The sister for whom he gave up so much?'
'Yes, his sister Margaret. She was eight or nine years older, very
handsome, very clever, a good deal like him--a pattern elder sister;
indeed, she brought him up in great part after his mother died, and he
was devoted to her. I do believe it made the sacrifice of his prospects
quite easy to him, to know it was for her sake, that she would live
on at Stylehurst, and the change be softened to her. Then came Fanny's
illness, and that lead to the marriage with Dr. Henley. It was just what
no one could object to; he is a respectable man in full practice, with a
large income; but he is much older than she is, not her equal in mind or
cultivation, and though I hardly like to say so, not at all a religious
man. At any rate, Margaret Morville was one of the last people one could
bear to see marry for the sake of an establishment.'
'Could her brother do nothing?'
'He expostulated with all his might; but at nineteen he could do little
with a determined sister of twenty-seven; and the very t
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