Page:Lady Anne Granard 1.pdf/49

44 were of paramount importance. The world was looked upon as a particular set, out of whose pale there was neither interest nor refinement; the rest were just common people, whom nobody knows. Lady Anne would have been in despair if the Misses Granard had not been allowed at any party to be among the most elegant girls in the room, but she cared as little for their affection as for their comfort. But her house, with its poverty and its pretence—her daughters, with their accomplishments and privations—presented a picture, a common one, of to-day. There is a mania in every class to be mistaken for what it is not. Many things innocent, nay, even graceful in themselves, become injurious and awkward by unseasonable imitation. We follow, we copy; first comfort goes, and then respectability. A false seeming is mistaken for refinement, and half life is thrown away in worthless sacrifices to a set of hollow idols called appearances. The girls were crowded round the fireplace, silent and shivering, when the page made his appearance. "If you please, miss," said he, addressing any one whose eye he might first happen to catch, " Mrs. Palmer has sent over her servant to ask if the young ladies could come and drink tea with her. She is quite alone, and it would be a real charity." The eyes of the little circle brightened. "How kind!" cried Isabella. "I wonder if mamma will let us go," said Helen, timidly.