There was a
constant restraint, hardly perceptible to most people, but
plainly visible, nevertheless, to me, which seemed to accompany
his lightest words, and to hang about his most familiar manner.
This, however, was no just reason for my secretly disliking and
distrusting him as I did. Ida said as much to me, I remember,
when I confessed to her what my feelings toward him were, and
tried (but vainly) to induce her to be equally candid with me in
return. She seemed to shrink from the tacit condemnation of
Rosamond's opinion which such a confidence on her part would have
implied. And yet she watched the growth of that opinion--or, in
other words, the growth of her sister's liking for the
baron--with an apprehension and sorrow which she tried
fruitlessly to conceal. Even her father began to notice that her
spirits were not so good as usual, and to suspect the cause of
her melancholy. I remember he jested, with all the dense
insensibility of a stupid man, about Ida having invariably been
jealous, from a child, if Rosamond looked kindly upon anybody
except her elder sister.
The spring began to get far advanced toward summer. Franval paid
a visit to London; came back in the middle of the season to
Glenwith Grange; wrote to put off his departure for France; and
at last (not at all to the surprise of anybody who was intimate
with the Welwyns) proposed to Rosamond, and was accepted.
Pages:
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296