Miss Dorothy, who doted on her nephew, taking his hand as he seated
himself between her and his cousin, said, in a congratulatory voice,
"Mary, our dear boy has come to town purposely to take us down."
"Yes, indeed," rejoined he; "my father is moped to death for want of
you both. You know I am a sad renegade! Lord Avon and Mr. Loftus have
been gone these ten days to his lordship's aunt's in Bedfordshire;
and Sir Robert is so completely weary of solitude, that he has
commanded me"--bowing to the other ladies--"to run off with all the
fair inhabitants of this house sooner than leave you behind."
"I shall be happy at another opportunity to visit Somerset Hall,"
returned Lady Dundas; "but I am constrained to spend this summer in
Dumbartonshire. I have not yet seen the estate my poor dear Sir
Hector bought of the Duke of Dunbar."
Pembroke offered no attempt to shake this resolution. In the two or
three morning calls he had formerly made with Sir Robert Somerset on
the rich widow, he saw sufficient to make him regard her arrogant
vulgarity with disgust; and for her daughters, they were of too
artificial a stamp to occupy his mind any longer than with a magic-
lantern impression of a tall woman with bold eyes, and the prettiest
yet most affected little fairy he had ever beheld.
After half an hour's conversation with this family group, Miss
Beaufort sunk into abstraction.
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