Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/7

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2
LADY ANNE GRANARD.

superstitious dread of shortening his life by making a will.

Mr. Glentworth hated his nephew, both with the general hatred with which men regard their heirs, and also with an individual hatred. The good and the generous action of which we feel incapable is a reproach when done by another; and the old man could not forgive the younger one for being better than himself. He was gone, however; and the one whom of all others he disliked came in for the accumulated wealth of years. If ever heir might be permitted "one touch of natural joy," it was in the case of Mr. Glentworth.

So much for the rejoicing, and now for the regretting.

"I never was so sorry for any thing as for Mr. Glentworth's death," said Isabella Granard, endeavouring to screen her face from a small, sharp rain, to which her place in the rumble of a travelling carriage left her quite exposed.

"I do believe that he died on purpose to plague us," replied Georgiana, her elder sister by two years.

"The ruling passion strong in death," said the other, laughing; "for Fanchette tells me he was a torment to every one about him. Still, dying on purpose to plague five girls of whom he knew nothing was what Lord Penrhyn would call a very strong measure indeed."

"I would not have cared if he had lived till after Christmas," continued Georgiana.