"
"Very devoted! 'An old man's darling and a young man's slave,' runs
the proverb; but Mrs. Grey seems to reverse it. She will soon never stir
out an inch without your brother, Maria."
"And I am sure my brother never looks so happy as when she is beside
him," said Aunt Maria. "We shall quite enjoy seeing them both
together to-night."
"And I only wish it had been my good fortune to join such a pleasant
family party," observed Sir Edwin Uniacke.
It was rather too broad a hint, presuming even upon Miss Gascoigne's
large courtesy. In dignified silence she passed it over, sending the
children and Phillis away to their early dinner, and after an interval of
that lively conversation, in which, under no circumstances, did Sir
Edwin ever fail, allowing him also to depart.
As he went down the garden, Miss Grey, with great dismay, watched
him stop at her beautiful jessamine bower, pull half a dozen of the
white stars, smell at them, and throw them away. He would have done
the same--perhaps had done it--with far diviner things than jessamine
flowers.
"Yes," said Miss Gascoigne, looking after him, and then sitting down
opposite Miss Grey, spreading out her wide silk skirts, and preparing
herself solemnly for a wordy war--that is, if it could be called a war
which was all on one side--"yes, I have come to the bottom of it all.
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