Do you mean to say
that I am not just what you thought I should be?"
"Well, not so clearly as all that, Isobel. Of course you were only
a little child when I saw you, and except that you had big brown
eyes, and long eyelashes, I confess that it struck me that you were
rather a plain little thing, and I do not think that your mother's
letters since conveyed to my mind the fact that there had been
any material change since. Therefore I own that you are personally
quite different from what I had expected to find you. I had expected
to find you, I think, rather stumpy in figure, and square in build,
with a very determined and businesslike manner."
"Nonsense, uncle, you could not have expected that."
"Well, my dear, I did, and you see I find I was utterly wrong."
"But you are not discontented, uncle?" Isobel asked, with a smile.
"No, my dear, but perhaps not quite so contented as you may think
I ought to be."
"Why is that, uncle?"
"Well, my dear, if you had been what I had pictured you, I might
have had you four or five years to myself. Possibly you might even
have gone home with me, to keep house for me in England, when I
retire. As it is now, I give myself six months at the outside."
"What nonsense, uncle! You don't suppose I am going to fall in
love with the first man who presents himself? Why, everyone says
the sea voyage is a most trying time, and, you see, I came through
that quite scathless.
"Besides, uncle," and she laughed, "there is safety in multitude,
and I think that a girl would be far more likely to fall in love in
some country place, where she only saw one or two men, than where
there are numbers of them.
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