Kendal was blamed, Sophy had
indignantly told Sarah Anne that she knew nothing about it, and had
no business to interfere. Then followed the accusation, that Mrs.
Kendal had set the whole family against their old friends, and Sophy
had found all her own besetting sins charged upon her step-mother.
'My dear!' said Albinia, 'don't you know that if a royal tiger were
to eat up your cousin John in India, the Drurys would say Mrs. Kendal
always let the tigers run about loose! Nor am I sure that your
faults are not my fault. I helped you to be more exclusive and
intolerant, and I am sure I tried your temper, when I did not know
what was the matter with you--'
'No--no,' said the choked voice. It would have been an immense
comfort to cry, or even to be able to return the kiss; but she was a
great deal too wretched to be capable of any demonstration;
physically exhausted by being driven about by Maurice; mentally worn
out by the attempts to be amiable, which had degenerated into
wrangling, full of remorse for having made light of her brother's
illness, and, for that reason, persuaded that she was to be punished
by seeing it become fatal. Not a word of all this did she say, but,
dejected and silent, she spent the evening in a lonely corner of the
drawing-room, while her brother, in the full pleasure of returning
home, and greatly enjoying his invalid privileges, was discussing the
projected improvements.
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