“Very likely, my child, you could not discern it. That was not a time for the expression of any such feelings. Her thoughts were then otherwise engaged. But I can say that, from what I have observed, I have no reason whatever to doubt that her affections are not as they were with respect to your brother. You know that Robert wrote to her by the same conveyance which brought us a letter, and although I gave every opportunity and hint I could to that purpose, Miss Primrose did not mention having heard.” “But, my dear papa,” replied Miss Darnley, still unwilling to think unfavourably of so valued a friend as Penelope, “might not her thoughts be otherwise engaged at the time, when you visited her; for you recollect that your call was much sooner after Dr Greendale’s death than our’s was.” Mr Darnley smiled with a look of incredulity, and said, “You are very charitable in your judgment, my dear, but I think in this instance you extend your candour rather too far. I did not only observe symptoms of alienation, but had, I tell you, almost a proof of the fact. I went so far as to allude to her engagement and to offer our house as an asylum; and her reply was, that she would be at the direction of Lady Smatterton. Whether she be vain and conceited enough to aspire to Lord Spoonbill’s hand, I will not pretend to say, but I am abundantly convinced that she does not regard your brother with the same affection that she did some time ago; and there certainly have been symptoms to that effect in the course of her correspondence, or Robert would never have used such language, or made such enquiries as he has in his last letter. And I think it would be but an act of kindness, or even of justice, to let your brother know what are our suspicions.” Now Mary Darnley, who was rather inclined to be blue-stockingish, and had of course, a mighty admiration for wisdom, and learning, and science, thought it not unlikely that if Penelope had changed her mind, and transferred her affections to another, that other was more likely to be Mr Kipperson than Lord Spoonbill. For, she reasoned, it was not probable that a young woman so brought up as Penelope had been, should be at all pleased with a character so profligate as Lord Spoonbill was generally supposed to be. Then Mr Kipperson, though he was double Penelope’s age, yet was a very agreeable man, and far superior to the common run of farmers; and he was a man of very extensive information and of great reading. The reasoning then went on very consequentially to prove, that as Penelope loved reading, and as Mr Kipperson loved reading, therefore Penelope must love Mr Kipperson. This perhaps was not the best kind of reasoning in the world, yet it might do in default of a better to support a theory.