Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/201

196 people have no mark, they soon become forgotten. Louisa has consigned herself to oblivion, so I shall not vex myself with thinking of her. I shall tell Mrs. Palmer my opinion freely as to her conduct." "She did every thing for your sake, mamma; she said, 'Lady Anne must not be vexed nor mortified;' she contrived every thing so that you might escape all trouble and see nothing to wound you." In point of fact, perhaps, Lady Anne, during her whole wedded life, had never experienced so much of the ordinary feelings of a mother as rose in her heart (if she had such a thing) when her two fair girls, with tearful eyes and beseeching countenances, looked to her for pardon and love. She had preferred Louisa, as considering her the most beautiful and the most likely to make a splendid marriage-connection; and was, of course, exceedingly disappointed that she should have done what she considered exactly the reverse; and she also felt very angry at the disobedience she had evinced, and the bad example she had given her younger sisters; but their conduct convinced her that, in this respect, she had little to fear. They had done wrong, but the Palmers were more to blame than the girls; and they were, after all, too convenient to be quarrelled with. It was, certainly, better that Louisa should have found a home with people of character, though such people, than have been taken by Charles Penrhyn to a lodging-house. Her daughter had, at least, shown a sense of