‘She defended her through thick and thin.’
‘You shocked her with the suddenness of what you said. She cannot forget the having been happy together as children; but she thinks as you do, and disliked the marriage very much. Before you came, she had been lamenting over Mrs. Finch.’
‘Then, it was pure perverseness!’
‘If I said so, I wonder what you would answer,’ said Violet, with a bright, arch look.
‘I should hear reason,’ said Percy, roughly, as if to repel the sweetness; yet it had a mollifying effect, and he presently spoke with less irritation and more regret.
‘She suspects no evil, and cannot understand any imputation on her friend. She fancies I speak from report, but I have known this fellow, Mark, all my life. His mother is a sister of my Aunt Fotheringham. They wanted me to hunt up an appointment to get him out of the young lady’s way.’
‘Before her marriage?’
‘Ay. When I was last in England, there was a great to-do at the discovery of an engagement between this youth and Miss Georgina. I suppose, considering her bringing-up, she was not much to be blamed. I remember my aunt thought the poor girl harshly dealt with.’
‘O, that must have been the cause of the nervous fever Theodora mentioned. She said she knew no particulars.’
‘She has not been openly dealt with,’ said Percy. ‘They do not dare to let her see their doings.’