She came to
my room and told me that she thought I ought to know, though she had
no opportunity of telling my mother, that she could not but believe
that she had observed a growing inclination between Mistress Annora
and the young Monsieur Darpent. I suppose my countenance showed a
certain dismay, for she explained that it might be only an old
woman's fancy; but knowing what were our French notions as to
nobility and rank, and how we treated all honest gentry without
titles like the dirt under our feet, she thought we ought to be
warned. Though for her part, if the young gentleman were not a
Papist and Frenchman, she did not see that Mistress Nan could do much
better even if we were in England. Then she began giving me
instances of barons' daughters marrying gentlemen learned in the law;
and I listened with dismay, for I knew that these would serve to make
my sister more determined, if it were really true that any such
passion were dawning. I saw that to her English breeding it would
not seem so unworthy as it would to us, but to my mother it would be
shocking, and I could not tell how my brother would look on it. The
only recommendation in my eyes would be the very contrary in his,
namely, that she might be led to embrace our religion; but then I
thought Clement Darpent so doubtful a Catholic that she would be more
likely to lead him away. My confidence was chiefly in his bourgeois
pride, which was not likely to suffer him to pay his addresses where
they would be disdained by the family, and in his scrupulous good
faith, which would certainly prevent his taking advantage of the
absence of the maiden's mother and brother.
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