Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/128

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LADY ANNE GRANARD.
123

come of it. I wish he would make up his mind, and marry one of them."

"I wish he would," answered Mrs. Palmer; "it would be a blessing to all the sisters if one of them were well married. But the idea of marrying I do not think has ever entered his head. He does not appear to me to have a preference; he looks upon them as children, and if they were his own he could not be kinder to them."

"I have not," continued Mr. Palmer, "told you all Mrs. Gooch observed. 'I am sure,’ said she, 'that Isabella is in love with him; she blushes when ever his name is mentioned; and the other evening I saw she started whenever he spoke to her; and you know how ready she is to talk in general; she is shy and timid while speaking to him.' Now Charlotte said this, and there is not much that she lets pass her."

Mrs. Palmer remained silent: her first impulse was to exclaim, "What nonsense!" her next was to think that the remark had more truth for its foundation than she liked to acknowledge even to herself. She, too, remembered, now that her attention was drawn to the matter, divers very suspicious blushes and starts, and together with this came the even strengthened conviction of Mr. Glentworth's indifference. "Poor thine!" said she, unconsciously aloud, "she is a kind, good—."

"And pretty girl," interrupted her husband. "I