He had kept
her to himself unspoilt, had much improved her in their retired life,
and as he had no intention of bringing her into rivalry with finer
ladies, the charm of her adoring simplicity was not likely to be
impaired. He had set his mind on his niece Elizabeth for her friend from
the first moment of their meeting, and except Elizabeth he did not
desire that she should find, at present, any intimate friend of her own
sex. And Elizabeth was perfectly ready to be her friend, and to care
nothing for the change in her own prospects.
"You know that my boys will make all the difference to you?" her uncle
said to her the next day, being a few minutes alone with her.
"Oh yes, I understand, and I shall be the happier in the end. Abbotsmead
will be quite another place when they come over," was her reply.
"There is my father to conciliate before they can come to Abbotsmead. He
is deeply aggrieved, and not without cause. You may help to smooth the
way to comfortable relations again, or at least to prevent a widening
breach. I count on that, because he has permitted you to come here,
though he knows that Rosy and the boys are with me. I should not have
had any right to complain had he denied us your visit."
"But I should have had a right to complain, and I should have
complained," said Bessie. "My grandfather and I are friends now, because
I have plucked up courage to assert my right to respect myself and my
friends who brought me up; otherwise we must have quarrelled soon.
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