'Pretty work this is; how will your father like
it, I wonder,' she gasped, sinking back again among her cushions in a
dry rage.
"'I don't care how anyone likes it,' said your mother quietly and
sadly. 'I am old enough now to know my own duty. I shall love, and
marry whoever I please.'
"'Well! upon my word--you don't mean to say so--do you, Queen Amelia?'
Miss Hartney returned in cold irony. 'Well then, my dear, you had
better be wider awake to your own interests,' she went on, 'for your
first attempt is going sadly against you already, poor child. I'm glad
your choice pleases you, you are not fastidious--but to all
appearances your regard is not reciprocated very warmly. May be, he is
only amusing himself during your absence, I can't say. He would be a
great fool not to take you when you are so willing, and aunt Liddy is
so fond of you, and getting old now--but it is evident that he enjoys
the society of the other girl. Aunt Liddy herself, with all her
partiality for you, confessed that Ernest Dalton's manner is much more
distant and reserved with you, than with this Inez Campuzano, with her
Spanish beauty, enough to intoxicate any silly, sentimental youth.'
"'Go on, aunt Winnie, said your suffering mother,' looking up at her
tormentor, with a glance of reproachful sarcasm. 'Go on, this is very
comforting, and you seem to relish it. What else?'
"'What else?' Miss Hartney repeated, with all the dainty sarcasm of a
disappointed old maid.
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