Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/9

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
LADY ANNE GRANARD.
7

companion apparently from the northern part of her own country, as she had, though aged, a fair complexion, ruddy cheeks, and high cheek-bones, with small piercing eyes, well calculated for the office of a duenna. Both were well dressed, and were, probably, relations, notwithstanding the difference of country exhibited in their persons; the superiority of the Italian style of feature struck Mary much, but that was all.

Isabella, on the contrary, felt a real interest in the strangers, at least in one of them, of whose face she did not get so good a view as her sister had done, and though her spirits were by no means in tone for forming acquaintance with a stranger, and she was really much engaged with the solemn and beautiful objects by which she was surrounded, yet still, from time to time, she could not forbear looking towards the younger. When she approached an old monument, as if to decipher the epitaph, Isabella went towards it also, and on the lady turning quickly away, because she found herself incapable of reading it, they suddenly faced each other, and Isabella exclaimed,

"It is—I am sure it is dear Mrs. Cranstoun!"

"And you are, certainly, a Granard; but it cannot be little Isabella?"

"Yes, indeed, dear lady, I am Isabella, but no longer a Granard: this is my sister Mary, but I