Page 163 (1/2)

"Oh, I alad," said Fanny, "I have so wished them to know at the

Hoainst her will, that she

had not been insensible to the aardness of the secrecy

"I should rather like to tell your cousin Rachel myself," said the

Colonel; "she has always been very kind to Ermine, and appreciated her

more than I should have expected But she is not easily to be seen now"

"Her whole heart is in her orphan asyluo with us and see it; the little girls look so nice"

The brightening of his prospects seemed to have quite consoled her for

her own perplexities

That Avonmouth should have no suspicion of the cause of the sudden

change of pastor could hardly be hoped; but at least Lady Temple did not

kno ed

himself, how many comical stories Bessie detailed in her letters to her

Clare cousins, nor how Mrs Curtis resented the presumption; and while

she shrank from a lecture, more especially as she did not see how dear

Fanny was to blame, flattered herself and Grace that, for the future,

Colonel Keith and Rachel would take better care of her

Rachel did not dwell much on the subject, it was only the climax of

conceit, croquet, and mere womanhood; and she was chiefly anxious to

knohether Mr Mitchell, the teyh to tolerate Mr Mauleverer She had

great hopes from a London incumbent, and, besides, Bessie Keith knew