Clarence talked to him paternally, and took him to second-hand shops
to provide a cheap library of substantial reading, engaging to cater
for him for the future, not omitting Dickens; and Emily worked at
providing him with the small conveniences and comforts for the
voyage that called for a woman's hand. He was so grateful that it
was like fitting out a dear friend or younger brother.
'I wonder,' said Clarence, as he walked by my chair on one of the
last days, 'whether it was altogether wise to have this young Frith
here so much, though it could hardly have been helped.'
To which I rejoined that it could hardly have displeased the uncle,
and that if it did, the youth's welfare was worth annoying him for.
'I meant something nearer home,' said Clarence, and proceeded to ask
if I did not think Lawrence Frith a good deal smitten with Emily.
To me it seemed an idea not worth consideration. Any youth,
especially one who had lived so secluded a life, would naturally be
taken by the first pleasing young woman who came in his way, and
took a kindly interest in him; but I did not think Emily very
susceptible, being entirely wrapped up in home and parish matters;
and I reminded Clarence that she had not been loverless. She had
rejected the Curate of Hillside; and we all saw, though she did not,
that only her evident indifference kept Sir George Eastwood's second
son from making further advances.
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