So long as you do not ask too
much of me--in the way of sentiment, I mean--we shall get on very well, as
we have done since your return from school. I have had every reason to be
satisfied."
This was not much, but Clarissa was grateful even for so little.
"Thank you, papa," she said in a low voice; "I have been very anxious to
please you."
"Yes, my dear, and I hope--nay, am sure--that your future conduct will give
me the same cause for satisfaction; that you will act wisely, and settle
the more difficult questions of life like a woman of sense and resolution.
There are difficult questions to be solved in life, you know, Clary; and
woe betide the woman who lets her heart get the better of her head!"
Clarissa did not quite understand the drift of this remark, but her father
dismissed the subject in his lightest manner before she could express her
bewilderment.
"That's quite enough serious talk, my dear," he said; "and now give me the
_carte du pays_. Who is here besides these Grangers? and what little social
comedies are being enacted? Your letters, though very nice and dutiful, are
not quite up to the Horace-Walpole standard, and have not enlightened me
much about the state of things."
Clarissa ran over the names of the Castle guests. There was one which she
felt would be difficult to pronounce, but it must needs come at last. She
wound up her list with it: "And--and there are Lady Geraldine Challoner,
and the gentleman she is going to marry--Mr.
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