Page:Lady Anne Granard 3.pdf/256

254 than that their kindness and warm welcome of Helen, as a future daughter of the family, put the seal upon her happiness, and made her strong to endure those daily thorns, which were still plentifully strewed in her path, even by the mother who never rested till she had informed all her friends, directly or indirectly, "of the splendid and suitable union awaiting her favourite daughter Helen." No one who knew Lady Anne doubted that the daughter who made the best match would be the favourite; but every one unluckily remembered that Louisa enjoyed that situation from her fifteenth birthday to that of her marriage, though neither herself nor any other person recollected that she was the better for it, save in the gift of a bonnet, wherewith to catch the gazing baronet she had the virtue to disapprove, and the good sense to refuse.