She was supposed to be very clever. All young ladies are either very
pretty or very clever or very sweet; they may take their choice as
to which category they will go in for, but go in for one of the
three they must. It was hopeless to try and pass Charlotte off as
either pretty or sweet. So she became clever as the only remaining
alternative. Ernest never knew what particular branch of study it
was in which she showed her talent, for she could neither play nor
sing nor draw, but so astute are women that his mother and Charlotte
really did persuade him into thinking that she, Charlotte, had
something more akin to true genius than any other member of the
family. Not one, however, of all the friends whom Ernest had been
inveigled into trying to inveigle had shown the least sign of being so
far struck with Charlotte's commanding powers, as to wish to make them
his own, and this may have had something to do with the rapidity and
completeness with which Christina had dismissed them one after another
and had wanted a new one.
And now she wanted Towneley. Ernest had seen this coming and had
tried to avoid it, for he knew how impossible it was for him to ask
Towneley even if he had wished to do so.
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