“Yes I do,” replied her sister.
“Not the one who was implicated in that affair some years since?” pursued Mrs. Allen.
“The same,” continued Mrs. Eldon. “He was almost a boy when that happened, and he has quite redeemed himself since. And now that he is married, his friends wish to make an effort to bring him forward again; and I promised to ask you to invite him. It will be of service to him to be seen here.”
“Never!” said Sarah, with decision; “I never will countenance any one who could be guilty of such conduct. I am astonished you could ask it.”
“My dear Sarah, remember what a lad he was at the time,” urged Mrs. Eldon.
“He was old enough to know better,” replied Mrs. Allen.
“Undoubtedly,” resumed her sister—“but, Sarah, if you had a family of boys growing up around you, as I have, you would learn to look with more leniency upon their errors.”
“If I countenance such young men as Brandon,” replied Sarah, “I don’t know what right I should have to look for better things in my own sons. When society overlooks such acts, we may as well abandon all principle and order at once.”
“As a general rule, I agree with you,” returned Mrs. Eldon; “but situated as we are with regard to the Brandon family, I should wish here to make an exception. They were my mother’s earliest friends, and we are under many obligations to them.”
“Any thing that I could do for them but this, I would do cheerfully,” replied Sarah.