Charles looked more impatient than abashed, and the compunction seemed chiefly to rest with Amabel.
‘Now,’ said Mrs. Edmonstone, ‘I must go and see after my poor little prisoner.’
‘Ah!’ said Laura, as she went; ‘it was no kindness in you to encourage Charlotte to stay, Amy, when you know how often that inquisitive temper has got her into scrapes.’
‘I suppose so,’ said Amy, regretfully; ‘but I had not the heart to send her away.’
‘That is just what Philip says, that you only want bones and sinews in your character to—’
‘Come, Laura,’ interrupted Charles, ‘I won’t hear Philip’s criticisms of my sister, I had rather she had no bones at all, than that they stuck out and ran into me. There are plenty of angles already in the world, without sharpening hers.’
He possessed himself of Amy’s round, plump, childish hand, and spread out over it his still whiter, and very bony fingers, pinching her ‘soft pinky cushions,’ as he called them, ‘not meant for studying anatomy upon.’
‘Ah! you two spoil each other sadly,’ said Laura, smiling, as she left the room.
‘And what do Philip and Laura do to each other?’ said Charles.
‘Improve each other, I suppose,’ said Amabel, in a shy, simple tone, at which Charles laughed heartily.