Try to be friends with me,
Drusilla, if you can."
To any rightly-constituted mind, the motive thus acknowledged was simply
shocking. Here in Christian England was a young woman in a state of
bereavement, with so little idea of where to look for true comfort, that
she actually expected to find it among her mother's friends! Here was
a relative of mine, awakened to a sense of her shortcomings towards
others, under the influence, not of conviction and duty, but of
sentiment and impulse! Most deplorable to think of--but, still,
suggestive of something hopeful, to a person of my experience in plying
the good work. There could be no harm, I thought, in ascertaining
the extent of the change which the loss of her mother had wrought in
Rachel's character. I decided, as a useful test, to probe her on the
subject of her marriage-engagement to Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.
Having first met her advances with all possible cordiality, I sat by her
on the sofa, at her own request. We discussed family affairs and future
plans--always excepting that one future plan which was to end in
her marriage. Try as I might to turn the conversation that way,
she resolutely declined to take the hint.
Pages:
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477