It is about your sister Charlotte. You know how clever she
is, and what a dear, kind sister she has been and always will be to
yourself and Joey. I wish, my dearest Ernest, that I saw more chance of
her finding a suitable husband than I do at Battersby, and I sometimes
think you might do more than you do to help her."
Ernest began to chafe at this, for he had heard it so often, but he said
nothing.
"You know, my dear, a brother can do so much for his sister if he lays
himself out to do it. A mother can do very little--indeed, it is hardly
a mother's place to seek out young men; it is a brother's place to find a
suitable partner for his sister; all that I can do is to try to make
Battersby as attractive as possible to any of your friends whom you may
invite. And in that," she added, with a little toss of her head, "I do
not think I have been deficient hitherto."
Ernest said he had already at different times asked several of his
friends.
"Yes, my dear, but you must admit that they were none of them exactly the
kind of young man whom Charlotte could be expected to take a fancy to.
Indeed, I must own to having been a little disappointed that you should
have yourself chosen any of these as your intimate friends.
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