“I haven’t lived nineteen years for nothing,” said Carrie, folding her soft white hands complacently one over the other.
“Speaking of Nellie Douglass,” continued Mrs. Livingstone, who had long desired this interview with her daughter, “speaking of Nellie, reminds me of your brother, who seems perfectly crazy about her.”
“And what if he does ?” asked Carrie, her thoughts far more intent upon Durward Bellmont than her brother. “Isn’t Nellie good enough for him?”
“Yes, good enough, I admit,” returned her mother, “but I think I can find a far more suitable match—Mabel Ross, for instance. Her fortune is said to be immense, while Mr. Douglass is worth little or nothing.”
“When you bring about a union between John Livingstone Jr. and Mabel Ross, I shall have full confidence in your powers to do anything, even to the marrying of Anna and Grandfather Atherton,” answered Carrie, to whom her mother’s schemes were no secret.
“And that, too, I’ll effect, rather than see her thrown away upon a low bred northerner, who shall never wed her—never;” and the haughty woman paced up and down her room, devising numerous ways by which her long cherished three-fold plan should be effected.
The next morning, Durward arose much earlier than was his usual custom, and going out into the garden he came suddenly upon ’Lena. “This,” said he, “is a pleasure which I did not expect when I rather unwillingly tore myself from my pillow.”
All the coldness of the night before was gone, but ’Lena could not so soon forget, and quite indifferently she answered, that “she learned to rise early among the New England hills.”
“An excellent practice, and one which more of our young ladies would do well to imitate,” returned Durward, at the same time speaking of the beautifying effect which the morning air had upon her complexion.
’Lena reddened, for she recalled his words of yesterday concerning her plainness, and somewhat sharply she replied, that “any information regarding her personal appearance was wholly unnecessary, as she knew very well how she looked.”