But
he's been better since we've been in Paris. The gaiety suits him. He says
he can't live without society."
Clarissa sighed. Little as she knew of her brother's life, she knew enough
to be very sure that love of society had been among the chief causes of his
ruin. She took one of her nephews on her lap, and talked to him, and let
him play with the trinkets on her chain. Both the children were bright and
intelligent enough, but had that air of premature sharpness which comes
from constant intercourse with grown-up people, and an early initiation in
the difficulties of existence.
She could only stay half an hour with her sister-in-law; but she could see
that her visit of duty had gratified the poor little neglected wife. She
had not come empty-handed, but had brought an offering for Bessie Lovel
which made the tired eyes brighten with something of their old light--a
large oval locket of massive dead gold, with a maltese cross of small
diamonds upon it; one of the simplest ornaments which Daniel Granger had
given her, and which she fancied herself justified in parting with. She had
taken it to a jeweller in the Palais Royal, who had arranged a lock of her
dark-brown hair, with a true-lover's knot of brilliants, inside the locket,
and had engraved the words "From Clarissa" on the back.
Mrs. Lovel clasped her hands in rapture as Clarissa opened the morocco case
and showed her this jewel.
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