"
Over this Mrs. Brownlow would not rejoice. She did not like the poor
girl to be left to such society as her aunt would pick up, and she
wrote on her behalf to various county neighbours; but the heiress had
already come to the house in Hyde Corner, chaperoned by her aunt,
who, fortified by the trust that she was "as good as Mrs. Joseph
Brownlow," had come to fight the battle of fashion, with Lady Flora
Folliott for an ally.
The name of George Gould, Esquire, was used on occasion, but he was
usually left in peace at his farm with his daughter Mary, with whom
her step-mother had decided that nothing could be done. Kate was
made presentable by dress and lessons in deportment, and promoted to
be white slave, at least so Armine and Barbara inferred, from her
constrained and frightened manner when they met her in a shop, though
she was evidently trying to believe herself very happy.
Allen was convinced at last that he was designedly given up, and so
far from trying to meet his faithless lady, dejectedly refused all
society where he could fall in with her, and only wandered about the
parks to feed his melancholy with distant glimpses of her on
horseback, while Armine and Barbara, who held Elvira very cheap, were
wicked enough to laugh at him between themselves and term him the
forsaken merman.
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