Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/207

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LADY ANNE GRANARD.
205


Georgiana looked in Helen's face, and was certain the look of calm happiness she wore indicated some secret consolation; and so delighted was she with the thought, that her own passing trouble was instantly banished, and she gladly shared the very humble fare she found placed before Mr. Penrhyn, aware that she should not see Helen again until that hour when she would be called in the morning, and which in her kindness she would make a late one.

Our evils are not unfrequently attended with good. Louisa did not appear to need the lesson, for she was a happy wife, and an excellent one; but the close observation of what her sisters had to go through at this time (when Lady Anne's ambition and exhilaration caused her to appear to strangers, despite her sad state, a most charming person) made her own home appear a perfect paradise, and her husband a beneficent angel. Never did he fail to console her, by an assurance that Helen should always find a home in his house, and be to him as a dear sister; but there frequently were times, when he declared, "that even the visit of an hour must be relinquished, if she were rendered so miserable in paying it, as she too often appeared to be."

At this very time, his step-mother was much in the same situation as poor Lady Anne; therefore,