Being a tender and impulsive creature, she loved
her husband without criticism, exhaustively and religiously, and the
child not much otherwise. She watched the little foundling as if
she had been her own by nature, and Dorothy became a great solace to
her when her husband was absent on pleasure or business; and when he
came home he looked pleased to see how the two had won each other's
hearts. Sir Ashley would kiss his wife, and his wife would kiss
little Dorothy, and little Dorothy would kiss Sir Ashley, and after
this triangular burst of affection Lady Mottisfont would say, 'Dear
me--I forget she is not mine!'
'What does it matter?' her husband would reply. 'Providence is
fore-knowing. He has sent us this one because he is not intending
to send us one by any other channel.'
Their life was of the simplest. Since his travels the baronet had
taken to sporting and farming; while Philippa was a pattern of
domesticity. Their pleasures were all local. They retired early to
rest, and rose with the cart-horses and whistling waggoners. They
knew the names of every bird and tree not exceptionally uncommon,
and could foretell the weather almost as well as anxious farmers and
old people with corns.
One day Sir Ashley Mottisfont received a letter, which he read, and
musingly laid down on the table without remark.
'What is it, dearest?' asked his wife, glancing at the sheet.
'Oh, it is from an old lawyer at Bath whom I used to know.
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