Page:The Semi-detached House.djvu/184

 and had never had any particular father and mother, he could marry to please himself, and a good contralto voice might catch him any day. Mr. Greydon, who was an old college friend of Arthur's, was a constant guest, and Janet and he became better acquainted; but it required a strong attachment and a very sanguine disposition on her side, to derive that extreme gratification from these interviews, which she found in them. However, she went on persuading herself that he liked her, and that he would show it more when he had a living, and in the meanwhile she was perfectly happy if he handed her into a boat, or put on her shawl; and there was one blissful day, when he actually went back to the house to fetch her parasol which he observed she had forgotten. That parasol never saw the light of day again, it was put into a favourite Chinese cabinet and covered with lavender, and a new and inferior one bought for common use.

"The rival parties" on the 16th, as the Baroness always called them, went off well.