There was a hardness
about Miss Dunstable when matters of business were concerned on
which it seemed almost impossible to make any impression. It was not
that she had evinced any determination to refuse the tender of Mr.
Sowerby's hand; but she was so painfully resolute not to have dust
thrown in her eyes! Mrs. Harold Smith had commenced with a mind fixed
upon avoiding what she called humbug; but this sort of humbug had
become so prominent a part of her usual rhetoric, that she found it
very hard to abandon it. "And that's what I wish," said she. "Of
course my chief object is to secure my brother's happiness."
"That's very unkind to poor Mr. Harold Smith."
"Well, well, well--you know what I mean."
"Yes, I think I do know what you mean. Your brother is a gentleman of
good family, but of no means."
"Not quite so bad as that."
"Of embarrassed means, then, or anything that you will; whereas I am
a lady of no family, but of sufficient wealth. You think that if you
brought us together and made a match of it, it would be a very good
thing for--for whom?" said Miss Dunstable.
"Yes, exactly," said Mrs. Harold Smith.
"For which of us? Remember the bishop now and his nice little bit of
Latin."
"For Nathaniel then," said Mrs.
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