Grace Chatterton was by nature retiring and delicate; but her feelings
were acute, and on the subject of female propriety sensitive to a
degree, that the great want of it in a relation she loved as much as her
mother had possibly in some measure increased. Her affections were too
single in their objects to have left her long in doubt as to their
nature with respect to the baronet's son; and it was one of the most
painful orders she had ever received, that which compelled her to accept
her cousin's invitation. Her mother was peremptory, however, and Grace
was obliged to comply. Every delicate feeling she possessed revolted at
the step: the visit itself was unwished for on her part; but there did
exist a reason which had reconciled her to that--the wedding of Clara.
But now to remain, after all her family had gone, in the house where
resided the man who had as yet never solicited those affections she had
been unable to withhold, it was humiliating--it was degrading her in her
own esteem, and she could scarcely endure it.
It is said that women are fertile in inventions to further their schemes
of personal gratification, vanity, or even mischief. It may be it is
true; but the writer of these pages is a man--one who has seen much of
the other sex, and he is happy to have an opportunity of paying a
tribute to female purity and female truth. That there are hearts so
disinterested as to lose the considerations of self, in advancing the
happiness of those they love; that there are minds so pure as to recoil
with disgust from the admission of deception, indelicacy, or management,
he knows; for he has seen it from long and close examination. He regrets
that the very artlessness of those who are most pure in the one sex,
subjects them to the suspicions of the grosser materials which compose
the other. He believes that innocency, singleness of heart, ardency of
feeling, and unalloyed, shrinking delicacy, sometimes exist in the
female bosom, to an extent that but few men are happy enough to
discover, and that most men believe incompatible with the frailties of
human nature. Grace Chatterton possessed no little of what may almost be
called this ethereal spirit and a visit to Bolton parsonage was
immediately proposed by her to Emily. The latter, too innocent herself
to suspect the motives of her cousin, was happy to be allowed to devote
a fortnight to Clara, uninterrupted by the noisy round of visiting and
congratulations which had attended her first week; and Mrs. Wilson and
the two girls left the hall the same day with the Dowager Lady
Chatterton. Francis and Clara were happy to receive them, and they were
immediately domesticated in their new abode. Doctor Ives and his wife
had postponed an annual visit to a relation of the former on account of
the marriage of their son, and they now availed themselves of this visit
to perform their own engagement. B---- appeared in some measure
deserted, and Egerton had the field almost to himself. Summer had
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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