She had gone so far as to tell
her young friend what were her own wishes; she had declared her
desire that Griselda should become her daughter-in-law; but in answer
to this Griselda herself had declared nothing. It was, to be sure,
no more than natural that a young lady so well brought up as Miss
Grantly should show no signs of a passion till she was warranted in
showing them by the proceedings of the gentleman; but notwithstanding
this, fully aware as she was of the propriety of such reticence--Lady
Lufton did think that to her Griselda might have spoken some word
evincing that the alliance would be satisfactory to her. Griselda,
however, had spoken no such word, nor had she uttered a syllable to
show that she would accept Lord Lufton if he did offer. Then again
she had uttered no syllable to show that she would not accept him;
but, nevertheless, although she knew that the world had been talking
about her and Lord Dumbello, she stood up to dance with the future
marquess on every possible occasion. All this did give annoyance
to Lady Lufton, who began to bethink herself that if she could not
quickly bring her little plan to a favourable issue, it might be well
for her to wash her hands of it. She was still anxious for the match
on her son's account.
Pages:
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529