‘Nay,’ said Adela; ‘one grows to be content with mere negations, if they are nothing worse. I could be driven away, or at least find it an effort to remain, if Lady Northmoor were like her sister-in-law.’
‘Ah, now, that’s just what would make it tolerable to me. I could get a rise or two out of that Mrs. Morton. I did get her to be confidential and to tell me how much better the honours would have sat upon her dear husband. I believe she thinks that if he were alive he would have shared them like the Spartan kings. She wishes that “her brother, Lord Northmoor” (you should hear the tone), “were more worldly, and she begs me to impress on him the duty of doing everything for her dear Herbert, who, in the nature of things, must be the heir to the peerage.”‘
‘I am sure I hope not,’ said Lady Adela. ‘He is an insufferable boy. The people about the place can’t endure him. He is quite insolent.’
‘The animal, man, when in certain stages of development, has a peculiar tendency to be unpleasant,’ observed Bertha philosophically. ‘To my mind, Master Herbert is the most promising of the specimens.’
‘Birdie! He is much worse than his uncle.’
‘Promising, I said, not performing. Whatever promise there may have been in Northmoor must have been nipped upon the top of a high stool, but if he has sense enough to put that boy into good hands he may come to something. I like him
enough myself to feel half inclined to do what I can towards licking him into shape, for the honour of the family! It is that girl Ida that riles me most.’
‘Yes,’ said Lady Adela, ‘she behaved fairly well in company, but I saw her tittering and whispering with Emily Trotman in a tone that I thought very bad for Emily.’
‘She’s spoilt; her mother worships her,’ said Bertha. ‘I had a pleasing confidence or two about how she is already admired, or, as Mrs. Morton calls it, how the gentlemen are after her; but now she shall not put up with anything but a real gentleman, and of course her uncle will do something handsome for her.’
‘Poor man! I wish him joy. Has he more belongings?’