"I heard Mr. Sterling talking of it with mamma."
"Mr. Edwin Barley did, little woman. Did you hear why he wished it?"
"No."
"You should have heard that, it was so flattering to me. He thought I was too giddy to take charge of a young lady."
"Did he?"
"But Ursula would not accept the objection. It could not matter for a few weeks, she wrote to Mr. Edwin Barley, whether I were giddy or serious, and she could not think of consigning you, even temporarily, to Mrs. Hemson. Ah! my cousin Frances Carew and I took exactly opposite courses, Anne; I married for money, she for love. She met an attractive stranger at a watering-place, and married him."
"And it was not right?"
"It was all wrong. He was a tradesman. A good-looking, educated man—I grant that; but a tradesman. Never was such a thing heard of, as for a Carew to stoop to that. You see, Anne, she had learnt to like him before she knew anything of his position, or who he was. He was a visitor at the place, just as she was. Of course she ought to have given him up. Not she; she gave herself and her money to him, and a very pretty little fortune she had."
"Did she marry in disobedience?"
"That cannot be charged upon her, for she was alone in the world, and her own mistress. But a Carew of Keppe-Carew ought to have known better."