Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/108

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LADY ANNE GRANARD.
103

not courage to fancy mamma with all her daughters unmarried."

"Lady Anne is very anxious, then, for your establishment?" said her listener.

"I can remember nothing else," replied Isabella, "ever held forth in the future, but a good match. It may be wrong for a girl like myself to talk so freely: but who can help reflecting on what passes every day before her eyes?"

"It is not many, though, who do reflect," thought Mr. Glentworth, while Isabella went on.

"There are very few happy marriages; indifference on the part of the husband, and dislike on that of the wife, appear to me the general feeling. Yet there are some exceptions; and these led me to think, why should they be happier than their fellows? I always found the cause the same—they married from different motives. There was affection and respect for each other to begin with. But let a coronet, properly accompanied, be offered to any of my sisters, mamma would not hear of a refusal. Neither character, temper, and taste, still less attachment, would be taken into consideration; and, yet, without them how can there be happiness in married life! Georgiana's sweet nature will be perverted; all that is vain and frivolous in her will be brought out; she will constantly be disappointed in the vain endeavour to make pleasure a substitute for content, and, craving for excitement. Vain and heartless, the world will leave us little trace of