A curate even. There was Tillott. Why shouldn't she
marry Tillott? He, Daniel Granger, would give his child a handsome portion,
and they could go through life inspecting model cottages, and teaching
village children the works and ways of all those wicked kings of Israel,
who made groves and set up the idols of their heathen neighbours; a pure
and virtuous and useful life, without question, if tempered with come
consideration for the feelings of the model cottagers, and some mercy for
the brains of the humble scholars.
In the interval between this little after-dinner scene and the departure
from Arden, Mr. Granger invited Mr. Tillott to dinner two or three times,
and watched him with the eyes of anxiety as he conversed with Sophia. But
although the curate was evidently eager to find favour in the sight of the
damsel, the damsel herself showed no sign of weakness. Mr. Granger sighed,
and told himself that the lamp of hope burned dimly in this quarter.
"She really ought to marry," he said to himself. "A girl of her energetic
indefatigable nature would be a treasure to some man, and she is only
wasting herself here. Perhaps in Paris we shall meet some one;" and then
there arose before Mr. Granger the vision of some foreign adventurer,
seeking to entangle the wealthy English "meess" in his meshes. Paris might
be a dangerous place; but with such, a girl as Sophia, there could be no
fear; she was a young woman who might be trusted to walk with unfaltering
steps through the most tortuous pathways of this life, always directing
herself aright, and coming in at the finish just at that very point at
which a well brought-up young person should arrive.
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