Griff was not half
so near his goal as he had hoped last night when with kindly Parson
Frank.
The commotion was as if a thunderbolt had descended among the
elders. What they had been thinking of, I cannot tell, not to have
perceived how matters were tending; but their minds were full of the
Reform Bill and the state of the country, and, besides, we were all
looked on still as mere children. Indeed, Griff was scarcely one-
and-twenty, and Ellen wanted a month of seventeen; and the crisis
had really been a sudden impulse, as he said, 'She looked so sweet
and lovely, he could not help it.'
The first effect was a serious lecture upon maidenliness and
propriety to poor Ellen from her mother, who was sure that she must
have transgressed the bounds of discretion, or such ill-bred
presumption would have been spared her, and bitterly regretted the
having trusted her to take care of herself. There were sufficient
grains of truth in this to make the poor girl cry herself out of all
condition for appearing at breakfast or luncheon, and Emily's report
of her despair made us much more angry with Mrs. Fordyce than was
perhaps quite due to that good lady.
My parents were at first inclined to take the same line, and be
vexed with Griff for an act of impertinence towards a guest. He had
a great deal of difficulty in inducing the elders to believe him in
earnest, or treat him as a man capable of knowing his own mind; and
even thus they felt as if his addresses to Miss Fordyce were, under
present circumstances, taking almost an unfair advantage of the
other family--at which our youthful spirits felt indignant.
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