A certain nervous headache from which Mr.
Granger suffered now and then served the fair Sophia as a kind of rod for
his correction on occasions.
"I am not tired, my dear."
"O, papa, I know your constitution better than you do yourself. Poor Lady
Laura, how worn out she must be!"
"Lady Laura has been doing wonders all the evening," said Captain
Westleigh. "She has been as ubiquitous as Richmond at Bosworth, and she has
the talent of never seeming tired."
Clarissa took the first opportunity of saying good-night. If so important a
person as the heiress of Arden Court could depart and not leave a void in
the assembly, there could be assuredly no fear that she would be missed.
Mr. Granger shook hands with her for the first time in his life as he
wished her good-night, and then stood in the doorway watching her receding
figure till it was beyond his ken.
"I like your friend Miss Lovel, Sophia," he said to his daughter presently.
"Miss Lovel is hardly a friend of mine, papa," replied that young lady
somewhat sharply. "I am not in the habit of making sudden friendships, and
I have not known Miss Lovel a week. Besides which, she is not the kind of
girl I care for."
"Why not?" asked her father bluntly.
"One can scarcely explain that kind of thing. She is too frivolous for me
to get on very well with her. She takes no real interest in my poor, in
spite of her connection with Arden, or in church music.
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