"O, of course it is very easy to say that," exclaimed Lady Geraldine scornfully; "but you have not been so fortunate as a match-maker hitherto. Look at Emily and Louisa."
"Emily and Louisa were so intractable and difficult to please, that I could do nothing for them; and now I look upon them as confirmed old maids. But it is a different thing with Clarissa. She is very sensible; and I do not think she would stand in her own light if I could bring about what I wish. And then she is so lovely. Emily and Louisa were good-looking enough half a dozen years ago, but this girl is simply perfect. Come, Geraldine, you can afford to praise her. Is she not lovely?"
"Yes, I suppose she is handsome," the other answered icily.
"You suppose she is handsome! It is really too bad of you to be prejudiced against a girl I wanted you to like. As if this poor little Clarissa could do anybody any harm! But never mind, she must do without your liking. And now tell me all about George Fairfax. I was so glad to hear your news, dear, so thoroughly rejoiced."
"There is no occasion for such profound gladness. I could have gone on existing very well as Geraldine Challoner."
"Of course; but I had much rather see you well married, and your own mistress; and this is such a good match."
"Yes; from a worldly point of view, I suppose, the affair is unexceptionable," Geraldine Challoner answered, with persistent indifference; simulated indifference, no doubt, but not the less provoking to her sister. "George will be rich by-and-by, and he is well enough off now. We shall be able to afford a house in one of the streets out of Park Lane—I have a rooted detestation for both Belgravia and Tyburnia—and a carriage, and so on; and I shall not be worried as I have been about my milliner's bills."
"And then you are very fond of him, Geraldine," Lady Laura said, softly.
There were still little romantic impulses in the matron's heart, and this studied coldness of her sister's tone wounded her.
"Yes, of course that is the beginning of the business. We like each other very well," Lady Geraldine replied, still with the same unenthusiastic air. "I think there has always been some kind of liking between us. We suit each other very well, you see; have the same way of thinking about most things, take the same view of life, and so on."