But it is much better so. He would not have been of half so
much good otherwise.'
Lady Merrifield looked from one to the other, but said no more, for all
the young folks were round her; but every one was so much tired,
children, servants, and all, that prayers were read early, and all went
to their rooms. Yet, tired as she was, Lady Merrifield sat on in her
sister Jane's room, in her dressing-gown, talking according to another
revival of olden time.
'What did Ada mean about Rotherwood? Isn't he happy?'
'Oh yes, very happy; and it is much the best thing that could have
happened. It is only another of the proofs that life is very long,
especially for men.'
'Come, now, tell me all about it. You don't know how often I feel as
if I had been buried and dug up again.'
'There are things one can't write about. Poor fellow! he never really
wanted to marry anybody but Phyllis.'
'No! you don't mean it! I never knew it.'
'No, for you were in the utmost parts of the earth; and he was very
good, so that I don't believe honest Phyl herself, or any one without
eyes, guessed it; but he had it all out with our father, who begged
him, almost on that allegiance he had always shown, to abstain from
beginning about it. You see, not only are they first cousins, but our
mother and his father both were consumptive, and there was dear Claude
even then regularly breaking down every winter, and Ada needing to be
looked after like a hothouse plan.
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