"Yes! We are very forlorn to-night; but I think it's partly owing to
the weather!"
"Nonsense, dear. I can't have you giving in to the silly fancy of
being affected by weather. Poor dear Mr. Kirkpatrick used to say, 'a
cheerful heart makes its own sunshine.' He would say it to me, in
his pretty way, whenever I was a little low--for I am a complete
barometer--you may really judge of the state of the weather by my
spirits, I have always been such a sensitive creature! It is well
for Cynthia that she does not inherit it; I don't think her easily
affected in any way, do you?"
Molly thought for a minute or two, and then replied--"No, she
certainly is not easily affected--not deeply affected perhaps I
should say."
"Many girls, for instance, would have been touched by the admiration
she excited--I may say the attentions she received when she was at
her uncle's last summer."
"At Mr. Kirkpatrick's?"
"Yes. There was Mr. Henderson, that young lawyer; that's to say, he
is studying law, but he has a good private fortune and is likely
to have more, so he can only be what I call playing at law. Mr.
Henderson was over head and ears in love with her. It is not my
fancy, although I grant mothers are partial: both Mr. and Mrs.
Kirkpatrick noticed it; and in one of Mrs. Kirkpatrick's letters,
she said that poor Mr. Henderson was going into Switzerland for the
long vacation, doubtless to try and forget Cynthia; but she really
believed he would find it only 'dragging at each remove a lengthening
chain.' I thought it such a refined quotation, and altogether worded
so prettily. You must know aunt Kirkpatrick some day, Molly, my love;
she is what I call a woman of a truly elegant mind."
"I can't help thinking it was a pity that Cynthia did not tell them
of her engagement."
"It is not an engagement, my dear! How often must I tell you that?"
"But what am I to call it?"
"I don't see why you need to call it anything. Indeed, I don't
understand what you mean by 'it.' You should always try to express
yourself intelligibly. It really is one of the first principles
of the English language. In fact, philosophers might ask what is
language given us for at all, if it is not that we may make our
meaning understood?"
"But there is something between Cynthia and Roger; they are more to
each other than I am to Osborne, for instance. What am I to call it?"
"You should not couple your name with that of any unmarried young
man; it is so difficult to teach you delicacy, child. Perhaps one may
say there is a peculiar relation between dear Cynthia and Roger, but
it is very difficult to characterize it; I have no doubt that is the
reason she shrinks from speaking about it. For, between ourselves,
Molly, I really sometimes think it will come to nothing. He is
so long away, and, privately speaking, Cynthia is not very, very
constant. I once knew her very much taken before--that little affair
is quite gone by; and she was very civil to Mr. Henderson, in her
way; I fancy she inherits it, for when I was a girl I was beset by
lovers, and could never find in my heart to shake them off. You have
not heard dear papa say anything of the old Squire, or dear Osborne,
have you? It seems so long since we have heard or seen anything of
Osborne. But he must be quite well, I think, or we should have heard
of it."