“I’m sure she is always in regulation veils, and all the rest of it, at Church, if that’s what you ladies want.”
“But the crown of the misdoings seemed to be that she had been met at some old castle, sacred to picnics, alone with her children—no party nor anything. I could not make out whether the offence consisted in making the ruin too cheap, or in caring for it for its own sake, and not as a lion for guests.”
“The latter probably. She has the reputation of being very affected!!!”
“Poor dear! I heard that she was a great trial to dear Mrs. Brownlow,” said Mary, in an imitative voice. “Why, do you know, she sometimes is up and out with her children before six o’clock in the morning; and then Colonel Brownlow went in one day at twelve o’clock, and found the whole family fast asleep on different sofas.”
“The sensible way, too, to spend such days as these. To go out in the cool of the morning, and take a siesta, is the only rational plan!”
“I’m afraid one must conform to one’s neighbours’ ways.”
“Trust a woman for being conventional.”
“I confess I did not like the tone in which my poor Carey was spoken of. I am afraid she can hardly have taken care enough not to be thought flighty.”
“Mary! you are as absurd as the rest of them!”
“Why? what have you seen of her?”