“No; nor the year before. She has a good many pretty little talents, and is very obliging. Mrs. White seems to be very fond of her, and did not want to spare her when they went to Gastein for the summer. And this year, when there was so much infection about, I could not press it.”
“Is it true that there is anything between her and Petros White?”
“I know Miss Mohun—Jane—infers it, but I don’t like to build upon it.”
“I should build on most inferences that Jane Mohun ventured to make known,” said Geraldine, smiling; “and Paulina’s fate is pretty well fixed, I suppose!”
“Dear child, she has never had any other purpose since I first knew her thoroughly, and I do not think her present stay at Dearport will disenchant her. I think she is really devoted, not to the theoretical romance of a Sisterhood, but to the deeper full purpose of self-devotion.”
“I can fully believe it of her. Hers have not been the ups and downs of my Angela, though indeed, after all she has gone through, there is something in her face that brings to my mind, ‘After that ye have suffered awhile, stablish, strengthen, settle you.’”
“It is a lovely countenance—so patient, and yet so bright.”
“I do not think anything in all her life has tried her so much as the distress about little Lena; and after knowing her wildness—to use a weak word for it—under other troubles, I see what grace and self-control have done for her. You still keep your Thekla!” she added, as the girl flashed by, in company with a coeval Vanderkist.
“For a few years to come, though I am beginning to feel like the old hens who do but bring their children up to launch them on the waters.”
“Well, it is happy if the launch can be made with hope present as well as faith; and to see what Angel has become after many vicissitudes, not confined to her first years of youth, is an immense encouragement.”