‘Lily, my dear, forty-two is not all one with seventeen, especially when there’s an estate with an Italian countship attached to it! Though I’m sure I’d rather marry Alexis than this man. He is a gentleman in grain!’
‘Oh, Jenny, you are very severe!’
‘I’m afraid it is bitterness, Lily; so I rushed down to have it all out with you, and make up my mind what part to take.’
‘It is very hard on you, my dear, after you have nursed and waited on her all these years.’
‘It is the little titillation of vanity—exactly like the Ada of sixteen, nay, of six, that worries me, and makes me naughty,’ said Jane, dashing off a tear. ‘Oh, Lily! how could I have borne it if you had not come home!’
‘But what do you mean about the part to take?’
‘Well, you see, Lily, I really do not know what I ought to do. I want to clear my mind by talking to you.’
‘I am afraid it would make a great difference to you in the matter of means.’
‘I don’t mean about that; but I am not sure whether I ought to stand up for her. You see the man is really good at heart, and religious, and he is taking out this chaplain. The climate, mountains, and sea might really suit her health, and she could have all kinds of comforts and luxuries; and if she can get over his birth, and the want of fine edge of his manners, I don’t know that we have any right to set ourselves against it.’
‘I should have thought those objections would have weighed most of all with her.’