Why! the Sandals got all of their Millom Estate
for being good Protestants; for standing by the Hanoverian line instead
of those popish Stuarts. Father will think you have committed an act of
treason against both church and state, and he will be ashamed to show
his face among the Dale squires. It is too bad! too bad for any thing!"
and she covered her face, and cried bitterly.
"She is so lovely, so good"--
"Nonsense! Were there no lovely English girls? no good English girls?
Emily is ten times lovelier."
"You know what you said."
"I said it to please you."
"Charlotte!"
"Yes, I did,--at least, in a great measure. It is easy enough to call a
pretty girl an angel; and as for my promise to love your wife, of course
I expected you would choose a wife suitable to your religion and your
birth. Suppose you selected some outlandish dress,--an Italian
brigand's, for instance,--what would the neighboring gentlemen think of
you? It would be an insult to their national costume, and they would do
right to resent it. Well, being who and what you are, you have no right
to bring an Italian woman into Seat-Sandal. It is an insult to every
woman in the county, and they will make you feel it."
"I shall not give them the opportunity. Beatrice cannot live in this
beastly climate."
"The climate is wrong also? Naturally. It would follow the religion and
the woman. Harry Sandal, I wish I had died, ere my ears had heard such a
shame and sorrow for my father and mother! Where are you going to live,
then?"
"In Florence.
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