“Certainly it does. All the efforts of our present civilization seem directed to that end. We surround it with whatever can inspire terror. We call in the Law as well as the Church,—we add the Statutes to the Liturgy; and we close the whole with the most depressing of all festivities,—a wedding-breakfast.”
“And the Mandans, do they take a more cheerful view of matters?” asked Alice.
“How can you be so silly, Alice?” cried Lady Lyle.
“My dear mamma, are you forgetting what a marvellous opportunity we enjoy of learning the geography of an unknown sea, from one of the only voyagers who has ever traversed it?”
“Do you mean to go to Tilney, Alice?” asked her mother, curtly.
“If Mr. Maitland would like to add Mrs. Maxwell to his curiosities of acquaintance.”
“I have met her already. I think her charming. She told me of some port, or a pair of coach-horses, I can't be certain which, her late husband purchased forty-two years ago; and she so mingled the subjects together, that I fancied the horses were growing yellow, and the wine actually frisky.”
“I see that you have really listened to her,” said Mrs. Trafford. “Well, do you consent to this visit?”
“Delighted. Tell me, by way of parenthesis, is she a near neighbor of the worthy Commodore with the charming daughters? Gambier Graham, I think his name is.”
“Yes; she lives about twelve miles from his cottage: but why do you ask?”