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In what every body says, you know there must be something. I positively think you ought to show, in justice to the Elmours themselves, that you are at liberty, and that they do not want to monopolize you in this unaccountable sort of way." To this last argument our heroine yielded, or to this she chose to attribute her yielding.
Elmour would always permit her to consider him as her best friend, to whose advice she should have recourse in preference to that of any person upon earth;" recovering her assurance as she went on speaking, and recollecting some of the hints Lady Stock had given her, about the envy and jealousy of the Elmours, and of their scheme of monopolizing her fortune; she added a few commonplace phrases about respectability gratitude and great obligations then gave a glance at Lady Stock's handsome carriage, which was waiting at the door then asked for Miss Elmour and hoped she should not be so unfortunate as to miss seeing her before she left the country, as she came on purpose to take leave of her then looked at her watch: but all this was said and done with the awkwardness of a novice in the art of giving herself airs.
The names struck Miss Turnbull's ears, for they were the names of persons distinguished in the fashionable as well as in the literary world; and she was dismayed and mortified by the discovery that her country friends had by some means, incomprehensible to her, gained distinction and intimacy in society where she had merely admission; she was vexed beyond expression when she found that the Elmours were superior to her even on her own ground.
Our heroine hesitated. Lady Stock smiled, and said, she saw Miss Turnbull was terribly afraid of these Elmours; that for her part, she was the last person in the world to break through old connexions; but that really some people ought to consider that other people cannot always live as they do; that one style of life was fit for one style of fortune, and one for another; and that it would look very strange to the world, if an heiress with two hundred thousand pounds fortune, who if she produced herself might be in the first circles in town, were to be boxed up at Elmour Grove, and precluded from all advantages and offers that she might of course expect.
Ashamed of this dereliction of principle, she a few minutes afterwards warmly pronounced a panegyric on Ellen, to which Lady Stock only replied with a vacant, supercilious countenance, "May be so no doubt of course the Elmours are a very respectable family, I'm told and really more genteel than the country families one sees: but is not it odd, they don't mix more?
Yet, such is the inconsistency or the weakness of human wishes, that the very attentions which our heroine knew were paid merely to her fortune, and not to her merit, flattered her vanity; and she observed, with a strange mixture of pain and pleasure, that there was a marked difference in Lady Stock's manner towards her and the Elmours.
Whilst the suit was pending, Miss Turnbull had an opportunity of seeing something of the ways of the world; for the manners of her Yorkshire acquaintance, of all but Ellen and the Elmours, varied towards her, according to the opinion formed of the probable event of the trial on which her fortune depended. She felt these variations most keenly.
Wynne, with the Duchess of A ? She was always a prodigious friend of the Elmours, as I remember. How is that? Are they any way related, I wonder?" "Yes; they are now related by marriage," said Mr. Wynne; "Mrs. Elmour is a niece of the duchess." "Indeed!" "She is a charming woman," said Mr. Wynne; "so beautiful and yet so unaffected so sensible, yet so unassuming." "Pray," interrupted Mrs.
Lady Stock waited for the finishing word; but when it did not come, she went on just as if it had been pronounced. "The Elmours do vastly right and proper to talk to you in this style, for they would be very much blamed in the world if they acted otherwise.
Henry Elmour poor thing! she is sadly altered in her looks since you saw her, a gay rosy lass at Elmour Grove! But though her looks are changed, her heart, I can answer for it, is just the same as ever; and she remembers you with all the affection you could desire. She would not be like any other of her name, indeed, if she did otherwise. The Elmours were all so fond of you!"
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