A small and useless thing for Del
Mar. 7th, 2010 08:37 am"Oh, I shall never have their good opinion, of course."
"You must not be so hard on - "
"And I am resigned to it," she finished, with a perfectly calculated tinkling sort of laugh, chosen precisely because her cousin found its like so abhorrent. "Cousin Geoffrey will never forgive me for having once been a child in his presence, and his friend will not consider me to be of moral worth until I have died a missionary in Africa. You will excuse me that, I beg."
"I - " Miss Turner was clearly in some confusion. "I am sure that you judge them too harshly - "
"As they do all our sex." Catriona, as cutting as her tongue could be, was not entirely without heart. Seeing that she had distressed her friend she crossed the room to her, pressing her hand gently.
"My dear Miss Turner, you must not worry so. I am sure you are tolerably pretty, and polite enough to catch Mr Marwood's eye for a time. That he desires all women to be angels is quite out of our control, and ensures his miserable bachelorhood far more than any influence his friend can exert to that end. You will only be disadvantaged so far as having been shown an obvious preference, only to have it go unfulfilled, and that is positively seen as an advantage, these days." She patted Miss Turner's hand and crossed back to her embroidery. "Of course, you will have made an enemy of Geoffrey for life, but his list is far more extensive than you could ever credit, including those long dead and not yet born, and provided you avoid actually visiting him you are unlikely to run into him more than once in ten years." She laughed again, picking desultorily at an unfortunately placed stitch. Then, lifting her head, "Forgive me! I have rambled too long and entirely forgotten to ask your news."
"I - " Miss Turner twisted her hands in her lap, her cheek quite unusually pale. "Charles Marwood has made me an offer of marriage," she said.
"You must not be so hard on - "
"And I am resigned to it," she finished, with a perfectly calculated tinkling sort of laugh, chosen precisely because her cousin found its like so abhorrent. "Cousin Geoffrey will never forgive me for having once been a child in his presence, and his friend will not consider me to be of moral worth until I have died a missionary in Africa. You will excuse me that, I beg."
"I - " Miss Turner was clearly in some confusion. "I am sure that you judge them too harshly - "
"As they do all our sex." Catriona, as cutting as her tongue could be, was not entirely without heart. Seeing that she had distressed her friend she crossed the room to her, pressing her hand gently.
"My dear Miss Turner, you must not worry so. I am sure you are tolerably pretty, and polite enough to catch Mr Marwood's eye for a time. That he desires all women to be angels is quite out of our control, and ensures his miserable bachelorhood far more than any influence his friend can exert to that end. You will only be disadvantaged so far as having been shown an obvious preference, only to have it go unfulfilled, and that is positively seen as an advantage, these days." She patted Miss Turner's hand and crossed back to her embroidery. "Of course, you will have made an enemy of Geoffrey for life, but his list is far more extensive than you could ever credit, including those long dead and not yet born, and provided you avoid actually visiting him you are unlikely to run into him more than once in ten years." She laughed again, picking desultorily at an unfortunately placed stitch. Then, lifting her head, "Forgive me! I have rambled too long and entirely forgotten to ask your news."
"I - " Miss Turner twisted her hands in her lap, her cheek quite unusually pale. "Charles Marwood has made me an offer of marriage," she said.
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