"Perhaps she made some such discovery at Ryde for me."
"She told me of your meeting with the Gardiners there. Poor Julia! I wish it could be Julia, Cecil."
"I doubt whether it will ever be Miss Fairfax, Mary. She is the oddest mixture of wit and simplicity."
"Perhaps she has some old prepossession? She would not be persuaded against her will."
"All her prepossessions are in favor of her friends in the Forest. There was a young fellow for whom she had a childish fondness—he was at Bayeux when I called upon her there."
"Harry Musgrave? Oh, they are like brother and sister; she told me so."
"She is a good girl, and believes it, perhaps; but it is a brother-and-sisterhood likely to lapse into warmer relations, given the opportunity. That is what Mr. Fairfax is intent on hindering. My hope was in her youth, but she is not to be won by the semblance of wooing. She is either calmly unconscious or consciously discouraging."
"How will Mr. Fairfax bear his disappointment?"
"The recent disclosure of his son Laurence's marriage will lessen that. It is no longer of the same importance who Miss Fairfax marries. She has a great deal of character, and may take her own way. She is all anxiety now to heal the division between the father and son, that she may have the little boys over at Abbotsmead; and she will succeed before long. The disclosure was made just in time, supposing it likely to affect my intentions; but Miss Fairfax is still an excellent match for me—for me or any gentleman of my standing."
"I fancy Sir Edward Lucas is of that opinion."