Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/277

272 mother now saw clearly for which daughter the honour of his hand was designed. His admiration of Louisa had led him to fix on the sister who most resembled her, and whose scarcely developed form certainly promised the same splendid beauty so striking in Mrs. Penrhyn—"Mistress, plain, unadorned Mis tress Penrhyn," thought Lady Anne, and her aristocratic lip curled with contempt and vexation. "Alas! there was no chance of release for Louisa. Charles Penrhyn would live for ages; otherwise, how magnificent would her beauty have appeared in black; and how certainly, in a few years, would she have acquired the understanding necessary for using it to advantage—it was no use to think; that case was a lost one, but Georgiana's was in her hands; she was her mistress, to all intents and purposes, for the next three years, and much less time than that would serve to mould her to her mother's wishes." For a moment Lady Anne lingered on the possibility that she might marry the sailor, secure his little fortune (for surely he had something), and a pension from his early death, by which time she would unquestionably be much handsomer, as well as much wiser—but no! even five years, in which all this might take place comfortably, could not be allowed on the Marquis's account—she stole a glance at him; he was absorbed, enchanted, by the prima donna, and really looked very interesting, as most people do in a state of excitement; but Lady Anne could not be deceived—in five years' time he