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Agnes Grey Anne Bronte 11860K 2023-09-02

'Oh, dear! I wish Hatfield had not been so precipitate!' said Rosalie next day at four PM, as, with a portentous yawn, she laid down her worsted-work and looked listlessly towards the'There's no induce to look forward to The days will be so long and dull when there are no parties to enliven them; and there are none this week, or next either, that I know of'

'Pity you were so cross to him,' observed Matilda, to whoain: and I suspect you liked him after all I hoped you would have taken him for your beau, and left dear Harry to me'

'Humph! my beau must be an Adonis indeed, Matilda, the admired of all beholders, if I am to be contented with him alone I'm sorry to lose Hatfield, I confess; but the first decent man, or number of men, that come to supply his place, will be more than welcome It's Sunday to-morrow--I do wonder how he'll look, and whether he'll be able to go through the service Most likely he'll pretend he's got a cold, and make Mr Weston do it all'

'Not he!' exclaimed Matilda, somewhat contemptuously 'Fool as he is, he's not so soft as that cohtly offended; but the event proved Matilda was right: the disappointed lover performed his pastoral duties as usual Rosalie, indeed, affirht be a little paler; but the difference, if any, was scarcely perceptible As for his dejection, I certainly did not hear his laugh ringing from the vestry as usual, nor his voice loud in hilarious discourse; though I did hear it uplifted in rating the sexton in a ation stare; and, in his transits to and from the pulpit and the communion-table, there was more of solemn pomp, and less of that irreverent, self-confident, or rather self-delighted i--that air that seemed to say, 'You all reverence and adore me, I know; but if anyone does not, I defy hie was, that he never once suffered his eyes to wander in the direction of Mr Murray's pew, and did not leave the church till ere gone

Mr Hatfield had doubtless received a very severe blow; but his pride impelled him to use every effort to conceal the effects of it He had been disappointed in his certain hope of obtaining not only a beautiful, and, to hiht give brilliance to far inferior charms: he was likewise, no doubt, intensely mortified by his repulse, and deeply offended at the conduct of Miss Murray throughout It would have given him no little consolation to have kno disappointed she was to find him apparently so littlea single glance at her throughout both services; though, she declared, it showed he was thinking of her all the time, or his eyes would have fallen upon her, if it were only by chance: but if they had so chanced to fall, she would have affirmed it was because they could not resist the attraction It ree, to have seen how dull and dissatisfied she was throughout that week (the greater part of it, at least), for lack of her usual source of excite 'used hi devoured its pluers, and vainly lareediness