With all her
impetuosity, indeed, there was about her something markedly virginal
and remote, which is commoner, perhaps, in Irish than English women.
Mrs. Colwood watched the effect of it on Captain Roughsedge. After her
third day of acquaintance with him, she said to herself: "He will fall
in love with her!" But she said it with compassion, and without
troubling to speculate on the lady. Whereas, with regard to the Marsham
visit, she already--she could hardly have told why--found herself full
of curiosity.
Meanwhile, in the few days which elapsed before that visit was due,
Diana was much called on by the country-side. The girl restrained her
restlessness, and sat at home, receiving everybody with a friendliness
which might have been insipid but for its grace and spontaneity. She
disliked no one, was bored by no one. The joy of her home-coming seemed
to halo them all. Even the sour Miss Bertrams could not annoy her; she
thought them sensible and clever; even the tiresome Mrs. Minchin of
Minchin Hall, the "gusher" of the county, who "adored" all mankind and
ill-treated her step-daughter, even she was dubbed "very kind," till
Mrs.
Pages:
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46